What If?
by Dark Angel 4523
Summary: AU. What if Kurt hadn't attacked the president? What if he had been a teenager in Germany at the time? My take on how he came to join the XMen. KurtOC and Rated T eventually . . . *Officially Abandoned*
1. Chapter 1 Intro's, pixiestix, and a s

A/N: Hi! Welcome to my (not so) slightly AU X-Men fic. I would say this is my first story so be gentle, but no one pays any attention to that so I won't. Just to warn you I have included a few OC's, and messed with Nightcrawler a bit (a lot). Reviews are welcomed and appreciated, just try to make any criticisms constructive, okay?

Also, many thanks to my beta T.A. pixiestix for her repeated bribery, blackmail, and general kicks to the behind to get me to write. Hate you always!

Oh yes, one more thing, I seem to be having a bit of a comma infestation, resulting in some rather long sentences. I have been trying to control the problem, but they just keeping popping up!

What If?

Chapter 1: Intro's, pixiestix, and a snake?

A young woman walked down the dimly lit hall in the Munich Circus building. Most knew her simply as Pixie, though a select few knew that her birth certificate said Rebecca Thrasher. She was looking for the girls' bathroom, but had yet to find it. Pixie had gone to the circus with some friends, but they had all decided to go home straight after the show, and Pixie wanted to stop in at the bathroom first, if she could just find it. She turned a corner and came across a door marked 'Girls'. Relieved, she pushed open the door, then started. There was a person standing with their back to her, muttering something in a different language. A male. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this was the girl's bathroom," she said, confused. It had said 'Girls' on the door, hadn't it?

Without turning around, he replied "It is. Hardly anyone comes in here. I can leave if you want me to."

His voice was very soft and shy, Pixie thought, and generously laced with a very pleasant to listen to German accent. Well that was hardly unusual, she chided herself, she was in Germany after all. Speaking up, she said, "Oh no, it's okay. I was just going to use the mirror."

"Alright," he said, his back still to Pixie. Odd, she thought, not turning around. Maybe he was just shy. Quickly, she looked him over. From the sound of his voice, he was probably around fifteen, the same age as her. He was wearing a long black leather coat with the collar turned up, and had short curly black hair. He was taller than her, probably between five foot six and five foot ten, but she couldn't tell any more about him as he still had his back to her.

Walking up to the counter that spanned one wall of the bathroom, Pixie peered intently at the face in the mirror in front of her. Sparkling blue eyes stared back at her, looking over her shoulder length brown hair, checking for any stray hairs that had escaped from the two thin braids that started just above her ears and joined at the back of her head. She ran her hands lightly down the back of her head, making sure her hair was cooperating. Satisfied it was, she leaned closer to the mirror, searching her eyes to make sure she hadn't smudged her eyeliner. She didn't normally wear makeup, but tonight for some reason she had decided to go all out.

"Did you enjoy the show tonight?" the guy suddenly asked, still facing away from Pixie.

Enthusiasm lacing her voice, she replied "Oh yes, I thought it was great! They don't have circuses like that at home."

He was silent and Pixie thought maybe he wasn't going to say anything else, but after a minute he continued. "If you don't mind me asking, where is home? You don't sound like you are from around here."

Pixie thought for a moment, choosing her words carefully. "Well, home will always be Canada, but I live in New York. I go to a private school there, maybe you've heard of it. Xavier's School for the Gifted?"

"No, I have not heard of this school, but it sounds interesting," he replied.

"It is." More than you know, Pixie thought. "So, what did you think of the show?"

The as of yet nameless guy paused for a moment, then said "I don't know, I didn't see it. I am in part of the show, so I was backstage for the rest of it."

Turning her head to look at the bathrooms other occupant, Pixie exclaimed "Oh really, that's so cool!" Thinking for a moment, and unable to place him among the many clowns, acrobats and other circus performers, she asked "What part were you in?"

Moving to fully face the intriguing teenaged boy, Pixie moved her hand from where it was resting on the counter, and in doing so, knocked a tube of lip gloss that had being standing near the sink off the counter. Crouching down to pick it up, Pixie reached for the place where the small tube had rolled, only to encounter empty air. Looking up to see where it had gone, Pixie came face to face with the mysterious circus performer.

Startled, she fell back onto her butt, staring at the person crouched in front of her. Golden eyes stared at her from a face that was unlike any other. Graceful shapes danced across a forehead and cheeks that were tinged a dark shade of blue. Blue pointed ears peeked through his black hair. In fact, all of his body that was visible around his clothes was tinted blue.

Standing up, he held out a three-fingered hand to help her up, saying "I am the 'Incredible Nightcrawler'."

Still a little dazed, Pixie took the offered hand and let him help her up off the bathroom floor. Shaking her head a little to clear it, her voice laced with interest, she said "Wow, and here I thought it was just a costume."

Nightcrawler, as she had decided to call him, looked taken-aback at her statement. "You are not afraid of me?" he asked, his voice incredulous.

Looking at the surprised look on his face, then looking at his face, Pixie realized that he was used to people taking one look at him and running very fast in the other direction. Hell, if she wasn't used to being around people who weren't exactly what society defined as normal, she might have done the same thing.

Feeling the need to reassure him, with a casual shrug of her shoulders she said "Nope. I mean, you haven't really done anything to make me afraid of you, except startle me. In fact, you helped me up, and if you were some evil scary person out to get me, I think you would have left me on the floor to get up by myself."

"Oh," he said, still looking surprised that she hadn't run away screaming yet.

"So . . . " Pixie said, curiosity getting the better of her, "are you a mutant? I mean, if it's all just some birth defect thingy, I'm really sorry, but it just seems to me that it's all just a little much to be a birth defect, so the next possible conclusion is that you're a mutant. And if you are, don't worry, your secret is definitely safe with me."She then paused with a mischievous smile. "Besides, I have a few secrets of my own." A wink preceded this cryptic statement.

"You do?" Nightcrawler asked, sounding slightly surprised.

"Of course I do, doesn't everyone?" Pixie said, skimming over the question. "So, are you a mutant?" she asked, not about to let the interesting blue-skinned teenager change the subject on her.

He looked uncomfortable, shifting his weight slightly from one foot to the other. "Um, _ja_," he said, flinching slightly as the words slipped past his pointed teeth, like he expected to be hit.

Pixie realized with a start that he was probably expecting her to scream, call him a freak, then run like hell. Well to heck with that, she thought. Plus, she thought with an inner giggle, with these boots on she'd probably trip and break her ankle, the stupid things. "Sweet! Is there anything you can do?" she said, smiling at the look of utter shock on the blue-skinned mutant's face. Too bad she didn't have her camera with her, the look on his face was priceless. Then again, it was kinda sad, seeing as it was obvious that he was used to people looking at him, seeing some sort of demon or something, then running away. It must hurt.

Pixie was startled out of her thoughts by a strange sound, a cloud of blue smoke surrounding him, then the same strange 'bamf' sound coming from behind her. She turned around to find Nightcrawler surrounded by the same fast-dissipating, foul-smelling blue smoke that had congregated in the place where he had once been standing, smiling at her look of shock. "I can teleport."

Trying to regain her composure while fanning away the brimstone-scented smoke, Pixie replied "I can see that." Grinning broadly now, she added, "You would like it at my school. To the public it's known as Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, but to us kids that go there it's just called Mutant High." There, that one threw him off-balance Pixie thought.

"You are a mutant?" Nightcrawler asked, yellow eyes boring into her own.

"Uh huh!" she replied, nodding her head. She grinned at him as he processed this new information.

Quickly he looked her over."You don't look like a mutant," he declared. That much was true, she looked like a normal teenager, or as close to normal as a teenager can get.

Casually shrugging her shoulders Pixie stated "Most of us don't. Most mutants look like normal, everyday people unless they are actually using their mutation."

Nightcrawler nodded his head in agreement. "I suppose." Unable to resist any longer he asked, "What is your mutation?"

"Well for starters . . . " Pixie answered, trailing off as she stretched, moving her arms as if she was trying to touch her elbows together behind her back while keeping her hands by her shoulders. For a half-second nothing happened, then all at once wings sprouted from her back. Each wing had three pieces, much like a dragonfly or butterfly, and they grew in size, overlapping slightly until the upmost tips of the upper set reached to a point above her head and the lowest part of the bottom set was level with her hips. The top set of her fairylike wings was coloured a rich blue, which blended into a deep periwinkle in the centre set, then to a royal purple in the last. They were semi-translucent, and rather large, as from tip to tip they were almost as wide as she was tall.

"Did those just come out of your back?" he asked, gaping at the pretty wings attached to her shoulder blades and upper back.

"No," Pixie said with a shake of her head. "I just expanded them. They normally are about this big" she gestured with her fingers, holding them a few inches apart "and they look like tattoos on my shoulder blades."

"Can you fly?" Nightcrawler inquired.

"Yep!" Pixie replied. She began to beat her wings slowly, then more rapidly, the disturbance in the air causing her hair to be blown around her face and Nightcrawler's long black coat to be buffeted back away from him. Slowly her feet lifted from the floor, and she rose a few inches in the air then hovered effortlessly. Spreading her arms, she said "See?"

"Yeah, wow," he said. Realisation dawning on him, he added "Wait a second. Before you said "for starters . . . ". Does that mean that you have more than one mutation?"

Pixie stopped flapping her wings and fell the few inches back down to earth. Quickly shrinking her wings she replied "Yep, I have two. I can show you, but you won't be able to really see it unless we go around other people or something that's moving. What's the quickest way outside?"

The teenaged mutant held out his hand, a subtle blush darkening the colour of his cheeks to indigo. With a shy smile, he said "I am."

Pixie paused for a moment, not understanding what the young acrobat had said. How could he be the quickest way out? A slight frown creased her brow as she tried to comprehend his puzzling words.

Nightcrawler noticed her frown and the puzzled expression on her face and decided to make his meaning clearer. "It would be much quicker for me to teleport you outside than for us to walk."

Understanding flashed on her face and she moved toward his still-outstretched hand, sliding her palm against his. Gripping her hand, he moved so he was face to face with her, and slipped his other arm around her waist, drawing her up against him. Pixie stiffened slightly, startled by the rather intimate contact. After all, she had just met the guy!

Ignoring (or just not noticing) her shocked stiffness, he looked down into her eyes. "Ready?" he asked, his voice no more than a soft whisper.

Pixie looked up, nodding her answer. Quickly she shifted her free hand onto his leather-covered arm, her fingers holding the material of his long black coat. She squeezed her eyes shut, the movement betraying her nervousness.

She heard the same strange 'bamf' noise, then felt as if she was being turned inside out. Her insides roiled, protesting the strange new sensation. An eye-blink later it stopped, and Pixie felt solid ground underneath her feet once more. Her stomach however, continued threatening to send her dinner back the way it came and a wave of dizziness washed over her. She swayed, and Nightcrawler's arms instinctively tightened around her, keeping her upright.

When she felt she could stand unassisted, she slowly backed out of his embrace. Opening her eyes, she noticed that they were in the deep shadows outside the circus, and that other than his golden eyes Nightcrawler blended into the darkness, invisible unless he moved.

Thankfully their abrupt entrance hadn't attracted any undo attention from passerby, and Pixie was pretty sure Nightcrawler wanted to keep it that way. "I can show you my other mutation, but you will have to be touching me for it to work for you," she said, keeping her voice to a whisper.

Slowly he moved away from the building, the shadows clinging to him like a cloak. In the growing twilight, it was hard to make out anything more than his profile as he stretched out his hand and lightly placed it on Pixie's forearm.

Pixie turned her head, checking to make sure Nightcrawler was ready. Satisfied he was, she looked toward the street, double-checking that no one was looking their way. Assured they weren't being watched, she squeezed her eyes shut, calling on her secondary mutation.

Opening her eyes, she looked toward the street and noted with satisfaction that the cars had all stopped moving and the people walking down the sidewalks had frozen in their places. She looked toward Nightcrawler and saw him staring at the frozen street. "You don't spend much time with other mutants, do you?"

"No," he admitted. "I've never met another mutant before."

"Well, you have now." Pixie stated simply. Turning to step out of the alleyway and onto the lamplit street, she said, "So, what do you think?"

"What did you do?"

"I paused time. It comes in really handy sometimes, 'specially when there's a test I haven't studied for or something," she said, sitting on the hood of one of the frozen cars and drawing her knees up to her chest.

The teenaged circus performer walked over to Pixie, sitting beside her after she patted the section of hood to her right in invitation. In a casual tone he added, "Or when you don't want to be seen."

She nodded in agreement, resting her chin on her knees.

"Oh, I almost forgot," he said, holding out a tube of lipgloss to Pixie.

"What? Oh . . ." She stared down at her lap, slightly fascinated by the sight of her strawberry lipgloss resting in the middle of a wide spade-shape attached at the end of a sinuous tail. "Thanks," she said, finding her voice as she took her lipgloss from the outstretched limb.

"What's your name?" he asked suddenly.

She turned her head to look at him, her cheek coming to rest on her knees. "Do you want my real name or my mutant name?" she replied, answering with a question.

He was silent for a moment, looking down at his hands as if contemplating which of her names he would rather have. Looking back at her face, he favoured her with a cheeky fang-toothed grin that hinted a sense of humour in his otherwise shy demeanour before replying with an equally cheeky "Both."

"My real name is Becky, well Rebecca really, but most people just call me Pixie on account of my wings," she said, gesturing vaguely toward her tattooed back. "How 'bout you; what's your name?" she added.

"Kurt Wagner," he said, his accent making it come out as 'Vag-ner'. "And I guess my mutant name is Nightcrawler."

"Well it's very nice to meet you Kurt." She stretched out her legs, then shifted her arms behind her to support her weight as she leaned back "Hey, if you're not doing anything, do you want to hang out with me and my friends? We're in the hotel down the street and we don't have anything planned. It'll give you a chance to meet some other mutants," she finished, trying to sound casual.

Kurt looked down at his hands, which were twisting in his lap. "I don't know," he said. At Pixie's cocked head and what's-the-matter look, he added "Most people are afraid of me when they first see me. I don't want to scare your friends."

She smiled. "I don't think you have to worry about scaring them. Believe me, when you walk into a room to find your friend deep in conversation with a garter snake, and when your teachers can control the weather and shoot laser beams out of their eyes, it kinda desensitizes you to that kind of stuff."

"Oh." Favouring Pixie with another view of his pointed teeth bared in a grin he joked "Well if you're sure I won't send them running for their lives, I guess it would be fun to meet some other mutants."

"I'm sure." Pixie stated. "They're way too sensible for that. So, do you want to go and meet them?"

"Sure," he said, sliding off of the frozen car's hood and strolling over to the sidewalk.

Pixie quickly joined him, unfurling her wings as she closed the distance between them. Drawing level with Kurt, she flapped her wings, raising herself several inches above the ground before flitting in front of him, backpedalling like a hummingbird to keep him from running into her. At a slow walking pace she began flying toward the hotel, still facing her new acquaintance. Heaving a mock long-suffering sigh she stated "The only drawback to pausing time is that you have to fly everywhere. Or, in the case of you poor mortals, walk."

He laughed. "Are you going to do that all the way to the hotel?" Kurt inquired, arching an eyebrow at the girl flying backwards a few feet in front of him.

Pixie shrugged carelessly. "Why not? It's the same thing as walking backwards, plus it's easier to talk this way." She glanced behind her every so often to make sure she wouldn't run into one of the pedestrians she'd frozen.

They moved like this for a few minutes, her flying backward a few inches off the ground, him walking as they fell into a companionable silence.

"How long have you been in the circus?" Pixie asked, blurting out the first thought that popped into her head.

Kurt shrugged his shoulders. "As long as I can remember."

"Wow! So, did like your mother work there or something?" Pixie asked, unable to quell her curiosity.

Kurt's expression changed, turned shuttered and closed off, but not before Pixie saw a faint glimmer of pain in his eyes. "No, she didn't. I'd rather not talk about it." "Okay, sorry." Pixie said, instantly feeling horrible for bringing up an apparently sensitive subject. She filed away a little note in her head, reminding her not to bring up that topic anymore.

"It's okay," he replied, then changed the subject.

They entered the hotel, telling stories about pranks they'd done and trouble they got into using their mutations. At the door to the room she shared with one of her best friends Pixie paused, squeezing her eyes shut. Kurt, noticing this, asked if she was okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You know how I paused time before?" Kurt nodded. "Well I was just unpausing it, putting it back to normal. It really freaks out my friends when I just appear in the room." She reached for the doorknob, then hesitated. "Oh yeah, I should probably mention that one of my friends is a total pyromaniac and will probably make all kinds of innuendoes about how flammable your hair looks and that sort of thing. But don't worry, she usually doesn't follow through with it."

"Usually?" Kurt parroted. Pixie noticed he looked a little worried.

"Well there was this one time . . . but I'm like ninety-nine percent sure that it was an

accident." Pixie said, looking a little uncertain in spite of herself. She opened the door to her small but cozy hotel room and stepped just inside the threshold, leaning against the doorjamb.

The girl on one of the beds looked up from her book as Pixie entered. Her shoulder-

length brown hair was so dark it looked black most of the time and she had warm brown eyes which she now had turned in her roommate's direction. "Hey Pix."

"Hey Kerr; what's up?"

"Not too much, just reading. You?"

"Yes actually. Do you remember 'The Incredible Nightcrawler'?"

"From the circus? Yes." Kerrie answered, sounding puzzled.

Pixie looked out into the hall where Kurt still stood, nervously out of sight. She gestured for him to come in the room, and when he complied, eyes to the floor, she said "Kerrie, this is Kurt Wagner. I met him after you went home and invited him to hang out with us. He's never met any other mutants before so I thought I'd show him how utterly strange we all are. That all right with you?"

"Yeah, of course it's all right." Kerrie got up, unfolding herself to her full height of five feet eight inches and walked over to Kurt. "Nice to meet you, Kurt. Do you have a mutant name?"

"Um, ja, I guess so. It's Nightcrawler."

"Mines' Willow."As she spoke, she outstretched her hand in a friendly handshake. Kurt

clasped the offered hand, then let out a small gasp of surprise. Pixie was able to see why when tiny curling vines pushed out from between their hands and began to twine themselves between his fingers and around his hand, quickly growing up his wrist and forearm. They stopped growing when they reached Kurt's elbow, but they began to sprout miniature leaves and small, intricate white flowers that filled the room with a heady fragrance.

He pulled his hand back only to turn it over, staring at the new decoration gracing his skin. When he finally looked back up to Kerrie's face, his expression was one of awe.

She shrugged, grinning. "I'm a plant person," she said by way of explanation.

Kurt cleared his throat. "I can see that."

The two girls sat down across from each other on the beds and Kerrie asked "So Kurt, what's your mutation?"

Kurt grinned and disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke, only to reappear in the same instant on the bed next to the one Kerrie was on. Both girls jumped slightly, Pixie because he had appeared right beside her and Kerrie simply because she had never seen his mutation before.

"Oh yeah, I was wondering how you did that," Kerrie said, "Neat mutation."

"Whose mutation is neat?" asked a voice from the other side of the room.

Pixie looked up to see two of her friends coming through a door that connected this room to the one beside it. "His," she answered, and was about to introduce Kurt but he beat her to it, his shyness seemingly lessened by Kerrie's positive reaction to him.

"My name is Kurt Wagner, but in the circus I am known as the Incredible Nightcrawler." He walked over to the girls and offered his hand in a handshake.

The shorter of the two girls turned to the other, pointing her finger. "Ha! Told you he was a mutant!" She then turned back to Kurt. "Hey. My name's Sarah and this is Elizabeth," She was not a tall person by any stretch of the imagination, though she did top Pixie by about an inch when they were both barefoot. Her heritage was Vietnamese, and it showed in the onyx locks that barely brushed her shoulders."My mutant name's Inferno."

Dark brown eyes brimming with what Pixie recognised as mischief she looked down at her hands, which held small globes of fire the colour of the sky on a summer's day. "I'd shake hands, but . . ."

"That's quite alright." Kurt quickly replied, looking a little startled.

Elizabeth laughed as she came forward to introduce herself. She was smaller than Kurt by a few inches and had her light reddish-brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, although several strands had escaped and were now tucked behind her ears. "Ignore her, she does that to everyone," she said as she shook his hand.

"So everyone keeps telling me . . ." He trailed behind the two girls as they walked over and made themselves comfortable on the two twin beds. Kurt looked unsure for a moment if he was invited to join them or not but then Pixie patted the bed between her and Kerrie and he hopped up and squatted between them, giving Pixie a quick grin.

Pixie looked sideways at Kurt. Instead of stretching out like the rest of them he was sitting on his haunches, his arms resting on his thighs. Before she could stop herself, a question blurted out. "Why are you sitting like that?"

Wrenching his gaze from Sarah's fireballs, which he had been watching apprehensively, he looked down, then at Pixie. "It's more comfortable for mein tail," he said, waving it in front of her playfully.

She grinned and swatted the appendage away before adding "You must have good leg muscles. I would get so sore doing that for even just five minutes."

"_Ja_, I suppose."

"Duh Pix, he is an acrobat." Kerrie rolled her eyes at the winged mutant, then ducked, laughing as a pillow went hurtling toward her head.

Sarah looked up from her fireball, which she had just been making zoom crazily around the room. She looked as if she had just remembered something, which it was evident she had when she asked Kurt "What's your mutation?"

Kurt grinned from his spot beside Pixie, then vanished in his trademark (to Pixie at least) cloud of blue smoke accompanied by the snap of imploding air. He reappeared in front of a very startled Sarah, who almost dropped her fireball and set the bed on fire. Still grinning he answered her question. "I can teleport."

"Wow." With a mischievous smile she added, "Your hair looks very flammable, did you know that?" She split her fireball in three with no more than a thought, and sent them spinning around Kurt's head in a vaguely threatening manner. In spite of Pixie and Elizabeth's warning that she did this all the time Kurt began to look a little worried and quickly teleported back to his spot on the bed, watching the small balls of blue fire continue their orbit around empty air.

"So . . ." Pixie said, "what were you guys talking about before we came in?"

Kerrie smiled. "We were discussing how to solve world hunger . . ."

" . . . how the purple gnomes will take over the world . . ." Elizabeth added.

"Honestly Elizabeth, _I'm_ the one taking over the world." Sarah interjected.

Pixie rolled her eyes. "Sure you were. You were probably talking about how hot the guy at the front desk is."

Elizabeth had a look of mock shock on her face. "How did you know?" she asked disbelievingly.

Pixie laughed. "It's because I'm psycho . . . I mean psychic," she said, crossing her eyes for extra effect.

Kurt laughed. The others had heard the joke enough times that it didn't make them laugh, but apparently he hadn't.

"I have a craving for pixiestix. Do we have any left?" she asked Sarah, who was sitting the closest to the small night table between the two twin beds and therefore closest to the candy.

Sarah opened the drawer and pulled out a handful of the thin plastic tubes. "We've got tons left. What colour do you want?"

"Orange."

As Sarah handed her the tube of sugary powder, Pixie turned to Kurt. "You want one?"

"Yes, please," he said politely, picking a brightly coloured tube from the array presented to him.

Sarah, noticing Kurt's choice of colours, wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Notice how he goes for the pink one first. I think it says volumes about his," she coughed, "preferences."

Kerrie laughed and threw a pillow at her. "Sarah! That is so rude!"

Kurt seemed to have chosen to ignore that remark, as he was staring quite intently at his tube of candy. Pixie wondered why, but he then turned to her with a puzzled look on his face. "How do you open these?"

"Oh, it's easy. You just pinch the sides, like this." She held up her own tube and pinched the sides together just under the top seam, which sprang open. She poured a small amount of orange powder into her mouth then added, "See?" He nodded, and after opening his preceded to dig in.

As Pixie had another mouthful of the sweet candy she looked over at her two friends on the other bed and noticed a small lump under Elizabeth's sweatshirt moving up her arm toward her shoulder. As it reached the neck of the garment the shape resolved itself into a small olive green snake with a thin yellow stripe running down its back, which promptly wound itself around her neck. Elizabeth reached up and petted the small reptile, saying a soft hello.

"Have a good nap?" Pixie asked.

Elizabeth looked up, paused a moment, then answered "Yeah. He says thanks for asking."

Pixie smiled. "Anytime." Noticing Kurt looking at the two of them like they had gone off the deep end she embellished, "I was asking Elizabeth's snake if he'd had a nice nap."

"I can talk to animals," Elizabeth added, "and he's not _my_ snake, he's my friend."

Pixie rolled her eyes. "Same difference."

Elizabeth looked over at Kurt. "You aren't afraid of snakes are you?" He shook his head. "Good." She reached up and the snake slithered onto her hand. "This is Echion; it means viper in Greek. Echion, this is Kurt." She held out the hand Echion was curling around to Kurt. "You can hold him if you want. He won't bite unless you squish him, and he really likes crawling all over people. And, contrary to popular belief, he isn't wet and slimy. He's more dry and cool."

"Okay." Kurt held out his hand, palm up to the little snake who slithered noiselessly onto it and began winding himself through Kurt's fingers. "What kind of snake is he?"

"He's a garter snake," Elizabeth answered. "They're pretty common where we live."

Getting tired of twisting through Kurt's fingers, Echion made one loop around his wrist then disappeared under the sleeve of his coat, making his way up towards his shoulder. "That feels very strange." Kurt commented.

"You'll get used to it." Elizabeth said, then giggled suddenly. "Echion says you are nice and warm. He thinks we should keep you."

"Keep me?"

She giggled again. "Yes."

"Oh."

At that moment Echion decided to reappear at the collar of Kurt's coat. He wound around his neck like he did with Elizabeth and stayed there, looking like a living necklace, before disappearing down Kurt's other sleeve.

Kurt suddenly looked up. "What time is it?" he asked, sounding a bit worried.

Kerrie checked her watch. "It's about nine fifteen. You out past curfew or something?"

"I have to get back. Thank you for having me." Kurt said, trying to reach into his sleeve to remove Echion, who it seemed didn't like the idea and was moving out of the range of his hand.

"Echion," Elizabeth warned, then added "It was nice meeting you, Kurt."

The slippery serpent finally came out Kurt's collar and Pixie grabbed him before he could dive back into his clothing. "Yeah, it was nice to meet you. You should come back sometime. We're usually here in the evenings, feel free to drop in whenever you want."

"I'll do that. _Gute nacht_!"

"Night!"

"See ya!"

And with that, he disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke.

Fanning away the brimstone-scented cloud Pixie turned to the other three girls. "So, what do you think of him?"

"He liked Echion." Elizabeth declared simply. "That's enough for me."

"He's afraid of Sarah, shows he's a normal human being." said Kerrie, who then had to duck a fireball and one of Sarah's hands as she laughed. Sarah got a pillow in the face in return.

"He seemed nice. A little shy though," said Sarah as she chucked the pillow back at Kerrie.

"Yeah," said Pixie. "You guys don't mind that I invited him back, right?" She hoped they hadn't just sounded excited to have him back so they wouldn't hurt his feelings. He looked like a fun guy.

"No, course not. He's cool." Kerrie stated, and the others made various noises of agreement.

Pixie relaxed. Elizabeth noticed this and slyly added, "He's sorta cute, once you get past the blue skin and the tail and everything. As you said, probably got a good set of muscles too."

"Yeah, I suppose. He is an acrobat after all." Pixie grudgingly agreed before changing the subject. "Come on, let's get something to eat; I'm starved."

A/N: So there, my first chapter. Now, I know you have an opinion on it. Liked it, didn't like it, bored out of your mind, whatever, just tell me! . . . Wow, I sounded really desperate there. Oh well. Review!


	2. Chapter 2 Conversations

A/N: Here's the second chapter, sorry it took me so long to get it out there. And I know, the first little bit is a tad confusing, it's actually quite heavily based off a conversation I had with a friend, though it was Stalker Joe who was set on fire instead of John.

I know the rule that we aren't allowed to do review responses so I'll just say thank you to those who reviewed, your words were appreciated.

Disclaimer: (forgot to put one in last chapter; oops!) Basically anything you recognise does not belong to me, although I have stolen Kurt and am using him for my own nefarious purposes, and have created a couple of new characters. So, everything belongs to Marvel or me, except my friend's half of the first conversation/argument, Linkin Park, pixiestix, and the game 'Who, What, Where, When, Why'.

Enjoy!

What If?

Chapter 2: Conversations

"I so did not set John on fire!"

"You so did!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Not!"

"Too!"

"Not!"

"Too!"

"Not!"

"Too!"

"You're the one who set the book on fire!"

"You're the one who threw the book!"

"It isn't my fault! You set the book on fire _after_ it was already in the air! If you hadn't it would've just bounced harmlessly off him!"

"Well Pixie if you hadn't thrown the book at all then it wouldn't have hit him and set him on fire!"

"That was totally your fault Sarah, stop denying it!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Not!"

"Too!"

There was a cloud of smoke in the corner of the hotel room announcing the presence of a mutant teenager, but the arguing girls didn't seem to notice. Kurt looked rather surprised to see the duo's verbal altercation and made his way over to Kerrie, who was reading a battered old copy of Lord of the Rings and who seemed to be ignoring the row quite effectively. "Is this a bad time?"

With difficulty she pulled herself out of her book and looked up at Kurt. "What?" He pointed toward Pixie and Sarah. "Oh. No, it's fine; those two always fight like that. Hey guys, shut up!"

Both girls immediately turned and stuck their tongues out at Kerrie, but snapped them back into their mouths when they saw Kurt standing beside her. "Hey Kurt!" Pixie said with a grin as she walked over to plop down on the bed alongside Kerrie and Elizabeth, who was writing in a spiral notebook.

"Hey. So, um, you set someone on fire?" he asked Pixie, his expression torn between amusement and wariness.

"Here they go again . . ." Kerrie muttered before Pixie's protests drowned her out.

"I didn't set anyone on fire! That was all Sarah!" Sarah opened her mouth to defend herself, but Pixie kept going. "This is what happened: I had been arguing with Sarah for a while and I threw my short story book at her. She ducked and for some reason set it on fire as it went past her. John was walking past and the flaming book hit him, and of course set him on fire as well. Thankfully he can control fire too so there wasn't any major damage."

"Oh. Does this . . . happen often at your school?" Now he was simply looking worried.

Elizabeth decided to throw her two cents in. "Yep." At Pixie and Sarah's looks she elaborated, "Well maybe not flaming books, but yeah, stuff like this happens. We tend to use our powers a lot at school, and, well, accidents happen."

Sarah laughed. "Oh yeah. Remember the time Jubilee stole Bobby's car–"

"And he froze the hot water pipe right in the middle of her shower!"

"You could hear her screaming bloody murder all the way in the kitchen!" The girls all burst out laughing at the memory.

A smile tugging at his lips Kurt said, "Your school sounds very interesting."

"Oh yeah." Pixie agreed.

"Anyone mind if I stick some music on?" Sarah asked, sitting up. After receiving a chorus of 'no's she went over to the considerable stack of belongings stacked along one wall and soon the sounds of Linkin Park were heard throughout the room.

Elizabeth pretended to cover her ears. "These guys again?"

"Yes, these guys again." Sarah huffed. "They are the only band we can semi-agree on."

"Yeah, but again?"

"Do you want me to turn it off?"

"No."

"Fine then."

Pixie leaned over to Kurt. "We fight a lot, just to let you know," she whispered.

"I can see that," he whispered back. By this time Sarah and Elizabeth were in a full-fledged mock battle, hurling insults about each others taste in music back and forth.

"Those two might be a while, want to do something until they finish?" Pixie asked.

"I've got some paper, want to play 'Who, What, Where, When, Why'?" Kerrie suggested.

Kurt looked confused. "What's 'Who, What, Where, When, Why'?"

It's this game where everyone gets a piece of paper and label Who, What, Where, When, and Why down the side. Then you fill in the 'Who' section, roll it up so no one can see that part, then pass it to the next person. They fill in 'What' and pass it on. When it's all done you read it out. Sometimes you get the weirdest things." Pixie explained.

"So you don't know what the other people have written?" Kurt asked, double-checking.

"Nope, not a clue."

"Ok."

Kerrie reached over and grabbed paper and pens from the night table, sliding the still sizeable stockpile of pixiestix off the sheets of paper. Ripping the paper in three she handed one to the other two mutants along with a pen, and kept one for herself. Pixie slipped off the bed and grabbed assorted binders and books to write on, then hopped back on, jolting the other two. Soon they were all scribbling furiously, rolling it up and passing it, then writing some more.

"Ok, I'm going first!" Pixie crowed, getting to her knees as she faced the others and unrolling her now-crumpled sheet of paper. By now Sarah and Elizabeth had joined them and were listening with rapt attention. "Here goes: Sarah was frolicking with the purple gnomes in the janitor's closet when the butterflies attacked, because the smiley face commanded it."

In between giggles Kerrie managed to choke out, "The smiley face? Who wrote that?"

The others were in a similar state, but Sarah pointed that she did it. "What did you expect me to write, frowning faces? Besides, those smiley faces are too smug not to be up to anything." she explained.

The others were read out, and it took a good ten minutes for them to calm down enough to be able to have a rational conversation. Elizabeth recovered first, but was set off again by Kerrie quoting parts between gales of laughter. Pixie calmed down next, and the others soon followed. "So, I see we didn't scare you off, and of course by 'we' I mean Sarah." Pixie said to Kurt.

"No, she didn't." A muttered "losing my touch," was heard from Sarah's direction, but Kurt continued. "Did you have other plans?"

The girls shook their heads. "We usually go out with the others all day, so we're pretty tired by the time evening rolls around. We just seem to end up hanging around here reading mostly."

"The others?" Kurt asked, idly curling his tail around his leg.

"Oh yeah, didn't we tell you? We're here with some of the other year-rounders and one of the teachers, Ms. Monroe. Apparently there is a whole bunch of neat stuff going on in Munich the end of this summer, so we're here for a sort of vacation/field trip thing. It's been pretty cool so far," said Pixie.

Kurt looked very interested. "When did you get here?' he asked "and what are 'year-rounders'?"

Elizabeth decided to pitch her two cents in. "Year-rounders are kids who stay at school all year; the ones who don't have anywhere to go for summer vacation. Technically Pixie and I aren't, but we end up spending part of the summer there anyway so it doesn't really matter. Oh yeah, we got here, the day before yesterday right?"

"Yeah," Sarah affirmed. "I'm still a little jet-lagged."

It always took Sarah a few days to get back on her feet after she'd been on a plane, Pixie thought. As a matter of fact, none of her friends really enjoyed flying, tending to look a little green by the time they landed. It didn't affect her though, she mused. Probably because she spent so much time airborne already.

"Ms. Monroe is pretty cool too," added Kerrie. "She gives us 'brain food' when we're doing tests, and let's us talk with our friends when we're not, provided we still get our work done."

"Mmm, brain food . . ." Pixie added, doing a remarkably good impression of everyone's favourite animated idiot as she reached for the backpack she'd dropped at the end of the bed earlier and brought out a big pack of Fuzzy Peaches.

The response from the others was rather like that of people who had been starving in a dungeon for a few days. Needless to say, she wished she'd bought another pack or two so she could actually slow down and enjoy them, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

When her mouth wasn't full with sugary candy, Kerrie managed to turn to Kurt and ask, "Think you'll be able to stay longer tonight then you did last night?"

"_Ja_," he said, dusting powdered sugar from his clothes. "I didn't tell anyone where I was going last night, so I couldn't stay long. But they know where I am now and it's okay with them, so I can stay longer. In fact, mein mother was happy to find out I'd met people outside of the circus, especially mutants."

Sarah looked puzzled. "Other than the obvious, why mutant?"

He looked a little uncomfortable. "I haven't really known any other mutants, I think she hopes I'll trade mutant tips with you or something. Well, maybe not that, maybe it's just that I've met others who share some of the same problems I do, something like that."

"Ah, I see. Well, glad we could make your mother happy!" Pixie said cheerfully.

"Yeah. I think that's a first; someone's parents being happy that their child is hanging around with mutants," Sarah said, a note of bitterness creeping into her voice. Sarah had run away when she found out she could create fire. Not that she hadn't run away before, she'd told her friends, but she was never gone for more than a day, and usually by dinnertime her big brother had gone out and found her. Now she was one of the year-rounders.

There was a moment of awkward silence following Sarah's statement but then Echion wriggled out from under Elizabeth's sweatshirt, slithered over the bed to where Kurt's hand was and promptly disappeared up his sleeve. "He really seems to like you," Elizabeth observed, "He never does that with someone he's just met." She paused for a moment then, with a smile threatening to take hold she added, "You should hear the things he's saying. I'm going to have trouble convincing him not to go back with you tonight."

Kurt smiled. "I'm glad he likes me, but I doubt Amanda or Stephan would appreciate me bringing a snake back with me. Amanda is terrified of snakes." A wicked grin slowly appeared and he added, "On the other hand, it would be very amusing to see her shriek and jump on a chair . . ." He seemed lost in daydreams for a moment before snapping himself out of it.

"Who are Amanda and Stephan?" Pixie asked.

"They are my brother and sister," Kurt explained. "They were in the performance last night. Amanda was the maiden I 'kidnapped' and Stephan is in the trapeze act."

"I remember her," Kerrie said. "That part was really good."

"_Danke_," Kurt said, a hint of pride in his voice.

Pixie looked over to the other end of the bed and saw that Elizabeth had abandoned the conversation for her spiral notebook and was writing unhurriedly. "Whatcha doing Elizabeth?" she asked.

She answered without looking up. "Writing."

Pixie rolled her eyes. "I saw that. What are you writing?"

"Just working on a story," she answered, still focussed on the words in front of her.

Kurt leaned over toward her, trying half-heartedly to see over her shoulder. "Oh really? What kind of story?" His tail had uncoiled from his leg and had unconsciously wrapped around Pixie's wrist to stabilize him.

Elizabeth finally put her pen down and looked up at Kurt. "It's a fantasy; elves, gnomes, the works."

He nodded his head. "Sounds interesting. I prefer a good swashbuckler myself, but it sounds good."

Kerrie chuckled. "Better than Sarah's creepy psycho stuff or Pixie's non-existent story."

"Shut up! It's not non-existent, I'm just a procrastinator!" Pixie said in defence, chucking a pillow that had somehow made it's way to her end of the bed at Kerrie for good measure. She missed but still got her point across so it didn't matter anyways.

Kurt sat back on the bed now that he'd seen what Elizabeth had been writing and Pixie lifted up her arm. "Um, Kurt . . . ?"

He looked over and saw that the wrist she raised was still held captive by his wayward tail. "Sorry, sometimes it has a mind of it's own," he said, letting go and, if you looked closely, his cheeks slowly turned indigo with embarrassment. At that moment Echion slithered out of his sleeve and over to Elizabeth.

"It's okay," Pixie said.

"So, do you all write?" Kurt asked, not-so-subtly changing the subject.

"Yep, one thing or another," Pixie said. "Sarah writes short stories mostly, and they're usually sort of creepy. Kerrie has started a couple of stories, But they've all been abandoned, right?" At Kerrie's nod she continued. "Elizabeth's got a fricking novel going, and actually works on it. Me, I've got some ideas milling around, and one I've started to stick on paper, but I'm sort of lazy and it doesn't get worked on much."

"Can you tell we like English class?" Sarah cracked, laughing a little.

At that moment the door opened and Ms. Monroe stuck her head in. "Hello girls, just checking that you're all here. Remember, it's ten o'clock, no leaving the hotel. Make sure you're in bed at a decent hour."

"Yes, Ms. Monroe," the girls chorused.

Pixie noticed that Kurt tensed beside her when Ms. Monroe came in and seemed to shrink down, trying to be inconspicuous. He looked ready to bolt when Ms. Monroe's gaze turned to him, but she merely said "Hello, I'm Ms. Monroe, what's your name?"

"Kurt Wagner," he answered, and seeming to come back to himself added, "But in the circus I'm known as the 'Incredible Nightcrawler'."

She smiled warmly at him. "I have seen your performance Kurt, you are a very gifted athlete."

"_Danke_," he said, relaxing a bit.

"You are very welcome. Goodnight everyone." The girls chorused a goodnight and she shut the door, continuing on to check that her other charges were in their rooms.

"She seems nice," Kurt commented. "What does she teach?"

"English, Creative Writing, History, and some of the younger students," Pixie piped up immediately. "She's a good teacher."

"I have no doubt. Well, I should be going, I have an early-morning practise. Same time tomorrow?" Kurt asked, stretching as he stood.

After receiving a few different affirmatives he said, "Thank you for a pleasant evening. I will see you tomorrow," and vanished in a puff of smoke.

"After a few minutes Sarah said, "Wow, Ms. Monroe was pretty calm. She didn't bat an eye at Kurt."

"That's probably because I was talking to her about him today," Pixie said as she got up and collected her toothbrush from her bag. "I described him and stuff, and she probably figured he'd be here tonight."

"Okay."

Kerrie got up and grabbed her book off the night stand. "I think I'm going to go to bed, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Night."

Elizabeth got her notebook and followed Kerrie, who was heading for the door. "Night you guys."

"Night."

The two girls left to go to their room next door while Sarah and Pixie washed up, changed into their pajamas, and went to sleep.

A/N: See the review button, don't you just want to click it . . .


	3. Chapter 3 Flying and Spying

A/N: Sorry about the wait, I have a bit of a memory problem. Anything that isn't right in front of my face I tend to forget. Oops!

Many thanks to my beta T. A. Pixiestix for kicking my behind to make me write!

And if anyone can spot the random X-Men 2 reference they get a cookie!

Disclaimer: Basically anything you recognise does not belong to me, although I have stolen Kurt and am using him for my own nefarious purposes, and have created a couple of new characters.

What If?

Chapter 3: Flying and Spying

The view from up here was amazing. Light blazed from the city as the last reds and purples faded from the sky, leaving it a deep twilight blue. Pixie sighed at the peace as she lazily flapped her wings. It was quiet up here too. If she strained she could just barely hear honking from the cars down below.

As a matter of fact, she could barely see either, but she wasn't overly concerned. There weren't any telephone wires or buildings up at this height, and any other creatures out this late had better vision than she, so she wasn't in danger of running into anything.

The only thing she was in any danger of was not being able to find her way back to the hotel, and she had that covered. It was a few buildings between the circus and an old run-down church, with lights surrounding a rooftop pool.

Dropping one wing Pixie slowly rolled to the side, her mind wandering. She felt guilty, as she did every summer. She spent ten months of the year at school and away from her parents already, then when she went home to visit, it wasn't even for the whole summer. Her parents said it was alright that she went to Germany for the last two weeks of summer vacation, but she still felt bad about it. She was one of the minority that had parents to go home to, and she ignored them. Well, maybe not ignored; she called regularly, and spent winter break and some weekends at home, but still.

She pushed those thoughts out of her head. She was here, there was no use worrying about whether or not she'd made the right decision.

It was fun here in Munich, she thought. They went to museums and art galleries and such during the day, and the past few evenings had been spent in the company of Kurt. It was weird, but he just seemed to fit in. It wasn't really awkward around him, even though they had only met him a week ago.

After meeting him for the first time Elizabeth had said he was cute. Pixie sort of brushed the question off, but now her mind mulled it over, beyond her control. He wasn't attractive in the traditional sense, but he was . . . intriguing. He was different and interesting.

Stop it, Pixie told herself. You will not mull over a guy you've only just met a week ago. She turned her mind to think about flying. The wind was starting to chill her, so she beat her wings harder, revelling in the extra burst of speed. A couple of quick loops had her laughing with exhilaration at the roller coaster-like effect.

She swooped and soared and throughout it all the wind flowed over and around her, cradling her like a giant down pillow. She laughed again, wishing she never had to come down.

Honestly, she thought, if someone offered to take away my mutation and give me back a normal life, I'd say no in a heartbeat. I could never give this up.

She found a thermal and glided, simply letting it carry her where it wished. She sighed and flipped over for a moment, contemplating the stars just starting to appear, before rolling over to her front.

The moon was rising over the horizon. Pixie noticed it and in doing so, realized that it was probably getting late and she should head back to the hotel. She banked slowly, heading back over the glittering city. In a minute or so her eyes spotted the run-down church and the circus building, and the rooftop pool between them.

Activating her second mutation, she swooped down toward the pool and at the last second back-winged sharply to avoid falling into it. She folded and retracted her pixie-like wings and looked around. The roof was deserted. She un-paused the world as she walked toward the elevator door.

Inside, Pixie paced and shook out her legs. It always felt weird to walk after she'd been flying for a while. Also, now that she was on the ground she was cold. She stomped again then stood still and simply let the warm air of the elevator wash over her skin.

She was out of the elevator as soon as it dinged, and a few steps down the hall she saw the distinctive white hair of her teacher and chaperone, Ms. Monroe.

"Hello Pixie," she greeted, "have a nice flight?"

"Of course, Ms. Monroe." She sighed. "It's a beautiful night tonight, the winds are mild, and there are some really nice thermals you can hit. And the view is spectacular! I can't believe I waited this long to go out flying here."

The dark-skinned woman smiled. "It sounds lovely, I may go out wind-riding myself this evening. But there is something I wanted to ask you."

"Anything," Pixie replied.

"I have been wondering if I should invite Kurt to come back with us to study at Xavier's. Do you think he would accept?"

Pixie looked thoughtful for a moment. "I'm not sure if he would say yes. We've talked with him about school and he sounded interested, but it's a long ways away and he wouldn't really know anyone. I mean, he's met us, but he's only known us for a week and it's not really the same thing."

"I will remember that. Thank you for your input." Ms. Monroe gave Pixie a warm smile.

"Anytime," Pixie said, nodding her head before she turned to walk back to her room.

Opening the door she saw that Kerrie had brought her Playstation over from the room she shared with Elizabeth and was playing Crash Team Racing with Sarah. Kerrie was in the lead by a long shot, and kept leaving booby traps for Sarah. Sarah, to her credit, hadn't played much but was still avoiding most of the traps.

Pixie walked over and plunked herself down next to Elizabeth, who was watching the race.

"Hey Pix, nice flight?" she asked, looking down from the race to her hand, where Echion was idly curling around her fingers. The little snake seemed rather sleepy, but still managed to raise his head toward Pixie in what was undoubtedly a greeting.

"Yeah, it was really nice out there tonight," Pixie said, leaning up against Elizabeth and stroking Echion's head. She reached up on the bed behind her and grabbed the hoodie she'd left there earlier, pulling it on and snuggling into it's warmth. "Bit chilly though," she added.

Echion saw her pull the warm sweater over her head, and slithered over Elizabeth's knee to curl under it, wrapping himself around Pixie's wrist.

"He always goes for the warm spots," Elizabeth commented before focussing her attention back to the video game.

Sarah had lost and Elizabeth was just challenging Kerrie to a tournament when a telltale 'bamf' announced the arrival of Kurt. It had been a week since the girls had met him and by now they were used to the abrupt arrival of his evening visits.

"Hey Kurt," said Elizabeth, not looking up from the video game.

"Hello," said Kurt as he walked over to the bed Pixie and Sarah were leaning against and flopped down on his belly on it. "What are you playing?"

Kerrie answered. "Crash Team Racing. You want to play after I beat Elizabeth?" She smiled as Elizabeth protested that she wasn't about to lose, which she was of course. Kerrie was the one who played the most and as such was the best at it.

Kurt looked delighted. "I would love to play, I have never gotten the chance to before." He rested his chin on his hands and watched the television screen intently.

Pixie looked over from the TV to Sarah sitting beside her. Sarah had gotten bored of watching Kerrie and Elizabeth race so she'd turned to her mutation to amuse herself. Pixie watched with the idle fascination of someone who saw this all the time but still liked it as Sarah made an intricate pattern of spinning fireballs. They swirled and spun, never quite touching each other but looking as if they would collide at any moment.

Then the balls all merged into one, and Sarah tarted to make shapes with it. First a glowing blue eye, then a Playstation controller, then a person wearing a cloak. She didn't stay with one shape for very long, tending to change them almost as soon as they were made.

Pixie was brought back from her pyromaniac fascination by Elizabeth's cheer as she, amazingly, won the tournament. Echion lifted his head to see what she was yelling about and Pixie petted him. Reassured, he went back to sleep.

"Alright Kurt, come on, it's your turn," Kerrie said as Elizabeth vacated her spot in front of the TV in favour of a spot beside Sarah.

Kurt was in the empty spot so fast Pixie almost thought he'd teleported there, except there was no blue smoke. Kerrie quickly explained the controls, then moved on to picking a character to race with and a map. She picked an easy one and in a second the screen had split and Pixie was watching the bottom half, Kurt's.

As the race progressed Pixie realised that Kurt was doing very well for his first time playing. Kerrie and two of the computer players were beating him, but he also had two of them behind him and was lining up a rocket to take out the player in third.

After the first race (in which Kurt got third) Kerrie was setting up another. "Can I play after this one?" Pixie asked.

"Sure," came the reply from Kerrie as she picked a map to race on. Just then there was a knock at the door and Ms. Monroe came in. "Hello girls, Kurt. I wanted to tell you that it's curfew, so no leaving the hotel. Also, I would like to talk to Kurt for a moment."

"Ooh, Kurt's in trouble," Sarah said, her voice sing-songing.

"We'll be next door," said Pixie, rolling her eyes at Sarah as they got up to leave.

Once outside the door the four stopped. "So, should we go next door and have Echion spy for us or should we stay out here and see what we can hear ourselves?" Pixie asked.

"Echion," Kerrie decided, moving into the room next door. "It's safer that way, and he will be able to hear Ms. Monroe coming before she gets to the door."

As the other three went into the next room Pixie bent down to let the now-alert garter snake down onto the floor. He slithered to the door and positioned himself so he was half under it, in a perfect spot to spy. Pixie ran to see was Elizabeth was translating.

"–sure the girls have told you about Xavier's, and I would like you to know that you are invited to come and study there if you wish. Airfare will of course be provided, and if at any point you want to come back home transportation will be provided there as well.

"There are students at all academic levels at Xavier's, and the courses are pretty loose. It's quite normal to have new students come in halfway through the semester, or with a gap of a few years between their last schooling and now, so don't worry about fitting in academically."

Elizabeth paused for a moment, head tilted to one side, listening to whispers the others couldn't hear. After a second she started translating again. "Thank you for the offer, Xavier's sounds wonderful. But, I am not sure if I could leave. This is my home."

Pixie's mental voice had been chanting 'Come back with us . . . come back with us . . .' since she started to hear Elizabeth repeating Ms. Monroe's words, but now they stopped. It didn't sound like he was going to come. She idly wondered why that thought bugged her so much.

Interrupting her musings Elizabeth continued to restate the conversation going on next door. "Well, you don't have to give me an answer now. Go home, think about it, talk it over with your parents. There is no rush." Elizabeth paused for a second, then smiled as she said "You can come back in now girls."

The four trooped across the hall and entered the room with guilty grins on their faces. They flopped down on the two beds, and Pixie asked "How did you know?" to Ms. Monroe.

The girl's teacher looked down her nose at Pixie, though there was a sparkle of amusement in her eyes. "You four are too nosy for your own goods."

"No doubt about that!" said Kerrie happily.

Pixie, who was sitting closest to Kurt, nudged him. "Since you know we blatantly eavesdropped on your conversation I might as well say this. Not trying to influence your decision or anything, but, you should come back with us. It's fun!"

"Pixie," said Ms. Monroe sternly. "Leave him some time to think it over before you start pestering him."

"Yeah Pix, don't pester him!" Sarah mocked, earning her a pillow in the face courtesy of the mockee.

Ms. Monroe shook her head at the two girls before getting up. After opening the door she paused, her hand on the frame. "Goodnight girls, I will see you in the morning. Just think about what I said Kurt."

"I will," Kurt said solemnly, but it was half drowned-out by the girls chorus of 'Night!". Ms. Monroe smiled and nodded at him before she turned and left. He turned back to the girls sprawled out on the beds. "So, anyone want to play Crash Team Racing?"

"Sure," said Pixie, after waiting a moment to see if anyone else wanted to play. She sat down on the floor and picked up Kerrie's controller, as it was the one that could pick out terrain and such. Soon she was guiding a cart hurtling through a simulated sewer system. She hadn't played for a while, and as such was fourth out of six. The fact that she kept getting useless weapons didn't help.

Kurt on the other hand, was flying through. He seemed to be getting the best weapons, and had just taken out the computer player in first. Pixie struggled to catch up. This guy's got good reflexes she thought as he skilfully avoided drop-offs, traps laid by other players, and the other players themselves. Personally, this level irritated her; she always fell off at least one of the drop-offs.

All too soon they crossed the finish line, Kurt having just squeezed in front of her at the last second. "Good job," she congratulated him, no hint of bitterness in her voice. She was never very good when she first played, it always took her a few races to warm up, and plus, he was just good at the game. She remembered when she first started playing, and it had taken her at least half an hour to get out of last place. That Kurt could get first in his second game bespoke talent.

"_Danke_," he said, smiling from ear to ear. He stretched lazily then with a teasing grin he added, "Do you want to play another time? I would be happy to beat you again."

Pixie grabbed the controller. "That was a fluke Kurt, and it won't happen again, I can assure you." She had managed to keep a mock-superior look on her face as she spoke, but it cracked into a smile soon after.

Kurt shook his head. "It was not a fluke. I will trounce you this time, just you watch."

Pixie just smiled. The one thought running through her head was 'The blue boy's going down!'

A/N: So, this is the end. See that little button down there? Don't you just want to press it:)


	4. Chapter 4 The Inevitable PackUp

A/N: Um, oops. I didn't mean to take so long to post this chapter, it's just sorta slipped my mind. And yes, I know it's taking a while, but there will be a plot! (Eventually) : ).

Disclaimer: I refuse to say it. As a matter of fact, I have no need to say it because, if you look closely at Kurt there is 'Property of Dark Angel 4523' tattooed on him. So there! Other than him, I don't own anyone you recognise. :)

A huge thank you to every who has reviewed this so far, your positive words have really inspired me.

Oh yes, my beta T.A. pixiestix has informed me that I should probably find a new beta, so if anyone wants to, I would be very happy. Although, it's because of her that I write anything at all, she's my official nagger! So thanks!

What If?

Chapter 4: The Inevitable Pack-Up

"Have you guys seen my hairbrush?" Elizabeth's voice drifted out of Pixie and Sarah's bathroom, which she was currently trashing in her search for the afore-mentioned object.

"For the fifth time Elizabeth no, no one has seen your hairbrush. My guess is that it mutated, sprouted little legs and walked away." Pixie looked up from where she was doing a survey of her own belongings, rolling her eyes at the half-open bathroom door. "And go right ahead and destroy our bathroom looking for the dumb thing, really," she muttered to herself as she started packing up her clothes.

Sarah piped up from her position half under her bed. "Personally, I think someone kidnapped your brush. You'll probably find a ransom demand on your doorstep tomorrow. 'Twenty jellybeans or the hairbrush gets it' or something like that." She added an evil chuckle before pulling herself farther under her bed. "Got it!"

Elizabeth stuck her head out of the bathroom, looking hopeful. "My brush?"

"No you idiot, my Post-It's. I thought I dropped them down here a week ago." Sarah wriggled out from under the bed, holding the speech-bubble-shaped sticky notes up triumphantly. "See?" She promptly grabbed a pen, wrote on one and stuck it to her shirt before going to rummage through her pile of stuff.

Elizabeth trudged out of the bathroom, shoulders slumped dejectedly. "Well, I suppose my brush isn't in here." At this Pixie swore she heard a mutter of 'we could have told you that' coming from Sarah's direction. "If you guys see it will you give it to me?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course we will." Pixie gave an absentminded wave as she scowled at her duffel bag. All the clothes fit in when she came here, why didn't they now? Shrugging she decided that when the time came tomorrow morning she would put everything in then just sit on it until the zipper closed. Satisfied with her plan she went to the now-wrecked bathroom to gather up some of her toiletries, waving at Elizabeth as she left.

As she came back out, her arms loaded with various items, she saw Kerrie camped out on her bed, idly growing a vine up her arm. Pixie dumped her stuff out on the bed by Kerrie's head. "Please don't tell me you've lost something too." She grabbed a bag and started sorting her things before shoving them in.

Kerrie looked away from her vine and raised her eyebrows at Pixie. "I packed all my stuff earlier. I've been laughing at Elizabeth for the past few hours. She's almost as forgetful as you, she's lost so much stuff! And in only two weeks!"

Pixie shoved Kerrie. "I'm not that forgetful! I'm almost done packing and I haven't lost anything." She paused for a minute. " . . . that I know of." Kerrie laughed, then Pixie gestured toward her greenery-covered arm. "Can I have one?"

"Sure. Bring your arm over here." Pixie complied, and Kerrie held her hand close to Pixie's wrist. Her finger's glowed green for a moment then a delicate vine began growing. The tendrils curled around her wrist, then slowly snaked up her forearm and curled around her fingers, forming living jewellery. Pixie giggled softly. "These things tickle when they move."

When a few shoots reached her elbow Kerrie changed her focus to making the vines grow leaves, which they did, slowly unfurling.

Kerrie pulled her hand away, and Pixie turned her arm around. She loved it when Kerrie made these vines for her. They were so pretty and delicate. They lasted for days, and without water too! Somehow, she'd never gotten Kerrie to tell her, they managed to stay flush against her skin, so she didn't have to worry about brushing up against something and having them get ripped off.

As she was admiring her living decoration there was a loud 'bamf' from behind her and she jumped. She turned and smacked Kurt's arm, scowling as he laughed at her. "Dammit Kurt, wear a bell or something!"

This only made him laugh harder. "I thought the bamf was enough warning."

"It's the 'bamf' that shocked me!" Pixie was laughing too at this point, as was Kerrie, who hadn't jumped when Kurt arrived.

"So Kurt, you excited about coming with us?" Pixie tried to not-so-subtly change the subject, which seemed to work, as Kurt stopped laughing and looked a bit nervous. "You are still coming, right?"

"Yes, I am still coming with you. I'm just a bit . . . anxious, that's all." He looked anxious too. His tail was alternately coiling up and straightening, and he had his hands in his pockets, presumably to keep them from wringing.

Pixie patted the bed beside her, and Kurt sank down. "Listen, I know it's creepy as hell being the new kid at school, especially if you're different."

"A freak," Kerrie said without looking up from one of Pixie's books she'd found on the night table.

Pixie rolled her eyes. "Fine, a freak. But that's the beauty of it; we're all freaks. We're all different, and I don't mean in an 'everyone is unique' sort of way. We are all mutants, and because of that, we tend to be more accepting of mutants then most of the general public."

"I know that, but my appearance tends to . . . shock people." He bared his pointed teeth in a self-deprecating grin that also served to illustrate his point.

At this Sarah turned toward the group from where she'd been throwing clothes from her pile into her bag. "I overheard Ms. Monroe talking on the phone to Dr. Grey this morning, and from what I heard, you're covered in that department."

"Oh, well that's good then." Kurt relaxed a little, and his tail curled around his leg. "So, what's it like there?"

Pixie was opening her mouth to respond when Elizabeth burst in the door. She slammed it shut behind her as she ran over to Sarah's bed, hopped on it, and jumped up and down like a small child, shouting "I found it, I found it!" In her hand was none other than her hairbrush.

The three girls laughed, while Kurt simply raised an eyebrow at Elizabeth's weird, weird behaviour. "Where'd you find it?" Kerrie asked.

At this Elizabeth stopped jumping. "In the last place I looked," she said, slightly defensively. Kerrie looked at her like she was an idiot. "Fine, fine," she relented, "it was on the dresser, right where I left it. But I couldn't see it 'cause I had some clothes and books piled on top."

"Smart, Elizabeth," Kerrie drawled, rolling her eyes.

Elizabeth sat down next to Sarah. "Oh shut it Kerrie, I know." She paused for a second, then noticed that there was an extra person in the room. "Oh, hey Kurt, you ready to go?"

He nodded. "Yes, I am all packed. I never knew I had so many things!"

"Yeah, I've got the same problem." Pixie pointed to her overflowing duffel bag. "There was a bit of extra room in there when I packed to go here, and I've only bought a few really small things, so technically it should all fit. But does it, no!" She threw her hands up in despair.

Sarah lighted up her hands. "I could always help you make it fit." The shine from the twin fireballs gave her face a creepy 'flashlight under your chin while you tell ghost stories' glow. That, her smile, and the fact that she REALLY liked to burn things made Pixie quickly refuse her help.

"So," said Kurt, "what is it like at Xavier's?"

Sarah looked sceptical. "Didn't we already tell you all about Mutant High, like, sometime last week?"

"Yes," he agreed, "but I want to hear about it again." He grinned and tried to look innocent. "Please?" When that just got eyes rolled at him even though the girls were smiling he switched tactics. "Well, what about the teachers, what are they like?"

Pixie was first to open her mouth. "You've already met Ms. Monroe, she's cool. Her mutation is that she can control the weather, so her nickname/codename is Storm. Mostly all of the kids stick with Ms. Monroe though.

"Then there's Dr. Grey. She's telekinetic and telepathic, so you don't want to think bad things too loudly around her." Kurt looked rather weirded out, so Pixie decided to elaborate. "Her and the Professor have this whole ethics thing about not going into people's minds without express permission, but she said that sometimes people think things very loudly and/or repeatedly and she can't help catching them. But she's actually a pretty good teacher. She teaches Biology, Cooking, and helps with some of the younger students. She tends to be an easy marker, and is fair.

"She is also seeing, or engaged to, or something with Mr. Summers. He's okay, but he's a bit more of a stickler for the rules than some of the other teachers. He teaches the math courses, Law, and a couple of mechanics and shop courses. His mutation is that he shoots laser beams out of his eyes. It's pretty neat except for the fact that he can't stop shooting them. He has to wear sunglasses or goggles made of ruby quartz all the time or he'd just destroy everything. Oh yeah, his codename is Cyclops, because of the whole eye thing.

"There's also the Professor. He created Mutant High, and runs it. He's one of the most powerful mutants alive, but you wouldn't really know it to look at him. It looks like he is around the fifty-sixty mark, entirely bald, and he's in a wheelchair. But he could control your mind so completely that he could make you do anything he wanted, if he wanted to. Thankfully, he doesn't want to, and has the whole ethics thing about not going into someone's mind unless he absolutely has to. He is very smart, and a lot of the kids come to him with problems and such.

"Lastly, there's Logan. He isn't really a teacher, in fact I don't think he's even there now, but he's an adult, so no doubt the Professor will rope him into something sooner or later. He's a bit . . . gruff, compared to the other teachers. As a matter of fact, I don't think he really likes kids. If he does get roped into teaching, it will probably be shop or something in the Danger Room, something like that."

"Geez that was a long spiel Pix, and you forgot to say that the Professor teaches Physics and Psychology," Sarah said.

Pixie looked sheepish. "Oh, whoops, my bad."

Kurt had been silent throughout Pixie's speech, but now he spoke up. "There aren't many teachers at Xavier's."

Kerrie looked up from Pixie's book she'd snatched. "True, but it works with the ones we have. They just have a bit more to do than most teachers."

Kurt stood up. "Okay, well thank you for telling me this, but I really should get back. They are holding a going-away party for me, and I'm missing it. I'll see you tomorrow morning!" With a jaunty wave from his tail, he disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke.

XXXXXXX

At nine-thirty the next morning, the morning of departure, Kurt teleported with his bags into the corner of Pixie and Sarah's room, to find it empty. That was strange. He looked in the bathroom, no one there. He was debating going into the hall when he heard noises coming from the wall that separated Pixie and Sarah's room from Kerrie and Elizabeth's room. Panic abating, he concentrated on the layout of the other girls' room, and was gone in a puff of smoke.

"Hey Kurt," said Kerrie upon his arrival, "Pixie's lost her shoes, so make yourself scarce before she drafts you to help find them."

Pixie wriggled out from under one of the beds. "Found them!" She promptly sat down and put them on, lest they disappear again. "How they got under your bed, Kerrie, I will never know. I wasn't even in here that often." She shook her head, then noticed Kurt. "Hey Kurt, you all ready to go?"

He lifted up his bags to show her. "Yes, I think I am. I have everything."

"Good. Ms. Monroe was in here a few minutes ago and said we'll be taking off in about half an hour, so we can laze around until she comes and gets us." She got up and stood stock still for a moment, before a sneeze erupted out of her, as well as her wings.

When the sneezes had abated, Pixie glared over her shoulder at the wings that had accidentally popped out. "Damn it, I hate it when that happens. I didn't ask you to come out, so go away." The last comment was directed toward her wayward appendages, which meekly shrunk and merged with her skin. She looked over at Kurt. "Does that ever happen to you? Mine always do it when I sneeze, either them or I accidentally pause. It's so annoying."

Kurt smiled. "Every now and then, but not as much at it used to. I used to accidentally teleport when someone startled me, it was rather frightening."

"I'll bet," Elizabeth said as she took one last look to make sure she had everything. "You can just dump your stuff here, no sense holding it."

All five heads turned as the door to the room opened and Ms. Monroe came in. "Alright, I just got off the phone with Jean, she should be landing in close to twenty minutes, so I want you to be down at the van in five. Oh, hello Kurt, are you ready to go?"

"Yes," he said, indicating his bags leaning up against the wall. "I have one question though, how am I to get to the van? I would teleport, but I'm not familiar with the area."

Pixie piped up. "I can help with that."

Ms. Monroe nodded. "Okay, as long as you are all down there in a few minutes. I have to go check on the other students, so I will see you then." She turned and left, shutting the door softly behind her.

Kerrie stood up from where she'd been lounging on Elizabeth's bed. "Well, I suppose we'd better get going if we want to be down at the van in time. See you two in a few minutes."

"Yeah, she's right, we'd better go," said Elizabeth as she grabbed her stuff. "See you in a few." Today Echion had himself around her neck like a choker, as much for the comfort of a free ride as to make sure he wouldn't get left behind.

"Have fun," Sarah said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively as she walked past, following Kerrie and Elizabeth out the door. She winked, laughing as she closed the door.

Pixie rolled her eyes. "What lovely friends I have." She looked around the empty room. "I hate this, I always feel like I'm forgetting something. I'm going to check the other room, just in case. Want to come?"

Kurt grinned mischievously. "Beat you there!" Before Pixie had time to fully register his words, the blue-skinned teenager had disappeared in a flash of blue smoke.

The bang of his teleportation spurred Pixie into action. Though she knew he had already beaten her, she was determined to come in a close second. She paused time with no more than a thought, then leisurely strolled out of the room and down the short stretch of hallway to her own.

When she opened the door she saw Kurt standing in the middle of the room, wisps of brimstone-scented smoke still clinging to him. That was good, she thought, at least he hasn't been here long. Pixie walked right up to Kurt and stood in front of him, staring into his golden eyes. She set the world moving again and watched with satisfaction as Kurt jumped when he saw her.

He quickly recovered though, and when he spoke he infused his words with a bored drawl. "Took you long enough."

Pixie stuck her tongue out and made a face before she started searching the room for items she may have forgotten. Kurt decided to pitch in, so it didn't take long. They came up empty-handed which was good, it meant she hadn't forgotten anything.

Taking one last survey of the room Pixie said, "I suppose that's everything. We've probably been at least five minutes, you ready to go?"

Kurt took a deep breath, then nodded. "_Ja_, I am ready."

Pixie walked the few steps over to the German mutant and put her hand on his bare forearm for a moment. Time stopped, and she stepped back. "C'mon, let's go." The pair got their stuff from the other room and walked down the long hallway to the stairs. Pixie would have preferred the elevator, but when she paused time anything that wasn't human-powered wouldn't work.

As they started down the two flights of stairs to the lobby Kurt remembered a question he'd had in his mind for the last several minutes. "Ms. Monroe mentioned someone named Jean. Who is that?"

"Oh, that's Dr. Grey."

At this Kurt looked rather confused. "It sounded like she was coming here. That doesn't make any sense. Aren't we going to America, not a teacher coming here to Germany?"

Pixie smiled as she jumped a stair onto a little landing. "But it does make sense. Dr. Grey is bringing the jet."

"'The jet'?" Kurt stopped mid-step. "You guys have your own jet?"

Pixie nodded. "Told you Mutant High was cool." She grinned broadly as she continued down the never-ending stairs.

Kurt shook his head and started moving again. "Well yes, you said it was cool, but you never said you had a _jet_. What else do you have?"

"You'll see," came the sing-song reply as Pixie pushed open the door to the lobby. Kurt had almost caught up to her by then, and it took no time for them to cross the richly-carpeted lobby with it's statue-like attendants and go out the doors into the waiting van.

'Van' was a bit of an understatement. It was more of a small bus, and as Pixie opened the sliding door to reveal it's frozen passengers she saw that her and Kurt were the last two to arrive. She hopped in beside Sarah and motioned for Kurt to take the empty seat beside her. He did, and shut the door behind him.

He arranged his bags on the floor around him, and when he was all settled Pixie set time moving again. Instantly the van filled with noise and Sarah and a few others jumped at their sudden arrival.

Pixie waved to Ms. Monroe in the seat in front of Sarah and she started up the van, slowly pulling away from the curb.

As they moved into traffic Pixie started her introductions. Over the past two weeks the other students on the vacation had heard about Kurt, so his appearance didn't startle them. Pixie introduced Kurt to them all, then twisted in her seat and began naming the other students to Kurt.

After being introduced to the new arrival, the other students drifted off into their own conversations. "So," Kurt asked, "how many students are there at Mutant High?"

Sarah leaned around Pixie to answer. "There's around a hundred kids there normally. It goes down in the summer though, to about sixty or seventy."

Pixie shifted her duffel bag on the floor so that she was more comfortable and looked out the window. They had travelled out of the main city and were on the outskirts of Munich now. They were heading for a large uninhabited field, the same one they had landed the jet in when they came here. She leaned back, not far now.

She was right, in a few minutes the field came into view. Ms. Monroe stopped the van at the edge and turned to face the students. "Dr. Grey should be here in a few minutes. I have to return the van, so I want you to stay at the edge of the field, and most of all, behave. Don't do anything to attract attention over here, and if anyone comes, get them to leave. Alright?"

After making various assurances that they would be good the young mutants filed out of the vehicle and grouped along a fence that bordered the field. Ms. Monroe drove off to return the monstrous van, fading quickly from the student's sight.

Pixie leaned against the rickety fence. "Well, this is fun." She was tempted to let her wings out, they were positively itching after being stuck in so long, but if anyone came along the results would not be good. Of course the same went for Kurt, but he was mostly surrounded by other students, herself included, so they would block him from view if anyone happened to pass by.

"Yeah, really," agreed Sarah sarcastically.

Pixie was about to retort, but before she could a droning noise cut her off. All heads turned toward the sound, and within seconds a small dark spot could be seen above the trees, coming closer and closer. When the jet reached the clearing it hovered for a moment, then slowly set down and lowered the ramp. Pixie looked over at Kurt, who had gone slack-jawed. She moved across the field with the other students and onto the state-of-the-art fighter jet, Kurt following. She turned to him with her arms outspread. "Welcome aboard the Blackbird."

A/N: You cannot resist the call of the little blue button. It commands you . . .


	5. Chapter 5 The Jet

A/N: Not a lot happening, just a couple of cute moments. I couldn't resist! Sorry about the lag in updating, I spend two weeks a month away from the blessed computer, and then I just . . . forget. Oops! And a big thanks to everyone who has reviewed!

I refuse to do another disclaimer, they're just depressing. Lol.

What If?

Chapter 5: The Jet

"Whoa." Kurt's eyes were huge as he took in the interior of the Blackbird. The other students had all entered and were taking their seats. The individual seats behind the pilot's had been snapped up by the first students to come on board so Pixie led him to the row of bench seats along the walls a little further back.

Pixie sat down and strapped herself in. "Cool, eh?" She looked up toward the cockpit and saw that Peter was talking to Dr. Grey, no doubt explaining Ms. Monroe's absence.

"Yeah," Kurt said, sitting down beside her. "So, this is what the inside of a jet looks like." He looked up as Kerrie sat on the other side of him.

"Well technically, this is just what the inside of the Blackbird looks like, I doubt all jets look exactly like this." She smirked good-naturedly as she did up her harness.

"Kerrie, you're annoying," Pixie said, leaning around Kurt and sticking out her tongue for good measure.

"Not as much as you."

Sarah leaned her head on Pixie's shoulder, yawning. "I'm sleepy Pixie, make it better."

Pixie shifted slightly to get comfortable. "Go to sleep then. It's not as if we'll have to get up and move around anytime soon."

"Maybe." She yawned again.

The students bright chatter filled the plane as they waited for their wind-riding teacher to return. Soon her white shock of hair was visible coming up the ramp and she quickly strapped herself into the copilot's seat. She raised the ramp and with Dr. Grey they prepared for takeoff.

"Everybody strapped in?" Dr. Grey called as the jet began to lift away from the grassy field and into the cloudless blue sky.

As the jet cleared the treeline Pixie leaned over and whispered into Kurt's pointed ear. "Hold on . . ." Sure enough, once it was over the trees the jet accelerated quickly, leaving the earth behind in its fumes.

Up in the cockpit the two teachers pushed buttons and pressed levers, moved knobs and as a result the jet levelled off, though it continued to move at an impressive speed.

Pixie yawned, the hand that wasn't half-trapped by Sarah's snoozing body reaching up to cover her mouth. "Hey Kurt," she asked, nudging him softly. When he turned his head from his wide-eyed observation of the plane to face her, she turned tired blue eyes to his, smothering another yawn. "Would you mind if I leaned against you? I'm dead tired, didn't get much sleep last night, and I think Sarah's got the right of it."

Kurt glanced at Sarah, already asleep with her head leaning on Pixie's shoulder and smiled. "_Ja_, go ahead."

She moved slowly so as not to wake her pyromaniac friend, and when she was comfortably settled against Kurt's surprisingly soft shoulder she closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "Thanks Kurt."

He shifted a bit so his arm was behind Pixie instead of squished against his side and she snuggled a bit closer, feeling sleepiness overcome her. "You're welcome."

Comfortably squished between Kurt and Sarah, with the jet's gentle rocking reminding her of the way the air held her when she flew Pixie had no trouble drifting off into a peaceful sleep.

XXXXXXX

"Pixie! Pixie!"

Pixie scrunched up her nose in annoyance and half-heartedly swatted at the hand gently shaking her. Damn it, why did Kerrie have to be such a morning person? Ms. Monroe would forgive her if she was a few minutes late. She buried her face in her soft, warm pillow . . . Wait a minute, warm?

She blearily opened her eyes to find herself with an extreme close-up view of midnight-blue skin. She blinked, and her mind was slowly freed from the temporary amnesia that sleep often causes. She sat up straight, rubbing her eyes to clear the grit away and looked over at Kurt who had been the one to shake her, not Kerrie. "We landing?" Her voice was a bit rough, and she cleared her throat a few times to fix it.

"Soon, said Ms. Monroe." Kurt gestured toward Sarah, still asleep. "You should wake her before we land."

"I don't want to be awake myself," she said, eyeing Kurt's deliciously soft pillow of a shoulder and wondering what he would do if she simply leaned over and went back to sleep. Sensing her intentions he laughingly warded her off. Trying to pull off a pout, but with a smile tugging at her lips she added, "I'd rather leave Sarah asleep. She's got a nasty habit of singeing people who dare try to wake her. Anyway, she'll wake up when we land."

"Kerrie leaned around Kurt. "Oh Pix, don't be such a wuss. Dr. Grey said to wake everyone up, and that includes Sarah." Her piece said, she sat back and opened up her copy of The Silmarillion.

"Fine, fine, fine," Pixie grumbled, gently shaking the girl sleeping against her. "But if she tries to singe off my eyebrows it's your fault."

Mumbling, Sarah opened her eyes. "Hey Sarah, time to get up. We're almost home." As the dark-haired girl grumbled some more and sat up straight Pixie held her secondary mutation ready to use. Sarah was a good friend but she really didn't like being woken up.

After a few minutes it didn't look like Sarah was going to engulf her in flames so she relaxed. Most likely she wouldn't have burned her anyway, but she might have threatened to, just for form's sake. Sarah really liked to threaten.

Pixie stretched as she looked across the plane at the other row of bench seats. That lovely nap had really done the trick. She felt more awake now then she did on a Saturday morning when she'd slept for eleven or twelve hours. Which, when she thought about it, was very strange. Usually it took anywhere from half an hour to an hour for her to drop off and that was at home in her own bed. Also, she could not sleep in any position other then laying down, but it seemed as if she had, and with record timing too.

She slanted a sideways glance at Kurt, who was talking with Mutant High's resident plant girl, Kerrie. Must have been him. That decided, her next thought was to test out that theory, the sooner the better.

She smiled to herself, and when the aforementioned golden-eyed teenager (hereafter known as the pillow she thought) finished his conversation with Kerrie she shifted around to face him. "So, what did you do while I was busy snoring on you?"

"You didn't snore," he said. "You mumbled a few times, but you never snored. As for me, I talked with Kerrie and Elizabeth or read." He gestured to a well-worn book laying on the floor near his feet. It looked old, and the cover bore a drawing of a man with a cutlass in one hand and a tri-cornered hat on his head and above the drawing were the words 'Captain Blood'.

She arched her brows and gave a half-smile. "Sounds lovely."

Kurt grinned. "It's actually quite good, contrary to the title."

"Uh huh, I'm sure."

Before Kurt could reply Dr. Grey called out from the pilot's seat. "Alright now, we're coming in on the mansion. Everyone strap your harnesses on."

Pixie heard Kurt draw a deep breath. She gave him a big smile and with a mind of it's own her hand slipped into his and she gave it a bolstering squeeze. She leaned closer and said in a low tone, "Don't worry, it'll all be okay."

An indigo flush was barely discernable along his cheekbones but he didn't move his hand away. Instead he squeezed back and managed a smile. "I know, but it seems I cannot help being nervous."

"Ah, New-Kid Syndrome. But hey, you've already done one of the major things to fix it. You've made friends at your new school."

The jet swooped down, drawing a cheer from its passengers at the roller coaster effect, and through the front windshield the students could see the wide lawn and impressive mansion bordered by trees that was Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. The basketball court had already been retracted and the Blackbird hovered over it for a moment before carefully descending, guided by the steady hands of Ms. Monroe and Dr. Grey.

Down into the cavernous underground hangar the fighter jet went, until, with a clunk that shook all passengers aboard, it landed.

The engine was turned off, all systems shut down, and the ramp was lowered. Then twelve students and their two teachers undid their harnesses and began to descend down out of the plane.

Pixie, still holding Kurt's hand, stood, and Kurt, whose hands and spaded tail showed the slightest of tremors, followed. Together they turned for the ramp, and in doing so missed the significant look shared by the winged girls' roommates at this interesting show of affection.

"Well come on. It's now or never," Pixie said, looking down at the ramp as she approached it.

"Ja," Kurt said and squared his shoulders as he followed Pixie. The other three girls followed behind and they emerged into the hangar.

Pixie noted that the other teachers had come down to welcome them home, no doubt for Kurt's benefit. Collecting her bags from the storage space in the underside of the Blackbird she said to Kurt, "Grab your bags then you can meet the professor. I'm pretty sure he just came down here to meet you."

Kurt nodded and after grabbing his things from the jet he followed Pixie to the man in the wheelchair.

Pixie said hello to her professor then began her introductions. "Kurt, this is Professor Charles Xavier; he pretty much owns and operates Mutant High.

"Professor, this is Kurt Wagner."

The professor warmly shook Kurt's hand with a twinkle in his eye and a half-smile on his face. _Welcome_, he said telepathically, _to Mutant High_.

A/N: So, what did you think?


	6. Chapter 6 The Grand Tour

A/N: Um, oops? hangs head Sorry about the huge lag in updating, but I am back on schedule (hopefully). Um, not my favourite chapter, but whatever.

Disclaimer: No one you recognise belongs to me. If they did Kurt would actually be in the third movie!

Feedback is appreciated. Enjoy!

What If?

Chapter 6: The Grand Tour

The professor turned his wheelchair to face Pixie and her three roommates, who had come up behind her. "I would like to speak with Kurt in my office. When I am done, will you show him around? You should have enough time to get settled in."

"Sure thing professor!" Pixie grabbed her duffel bag and lead the way out of the hangar and into the hall of the underground level. Pixie always thought it was vaguely sterile looking, with white walls and a metal floor, but it added to the whole 'secret underground facility' feel, so it was okay.

At the end of the hall there was an elevator, which Pixie opened and stepped into, followed by Kerrie, Elizabeth, Sarah, Kurt, and finally the professor.

Elizabeth asked Kurt, who was closest to the button panel, to press the one for the second floor and then they were moving, though thankfully there was no horrid elevator music.

When the elevator reached its destination the group parted; the four girls went to their room to unpack, while Kurt and the professor went to his office.

Upon entering the room she shared with her three closest friends, Pixie dumped her duffel bag on the floor and flopped down on her bed. "Damn it's good to be back!"

Sarah, who'd done the same, added, "Yeah. You never really realize how much you miss it till you leave." She kicked her bags, lying in a heap to the side of her bed. "Screw unpacking."

"I'll second that," Pixie said from her prone position. "I am going to just lie here till the professor calls us, then I think after we show Kurt around I'm going to go for a flight."

Kerrie looked up from where she'd been haphazardly shoving clothes into her dresser. "What's all this 'we' stuff? I'm really sure the professor was just looking at you."

"Oh, was he? I thought he was talking to all of us." She shrugged. "Okay."

"And speaking of Kurt," said Sarah with an evil glint in her eye as she sat down beside Pixie on her bed, "what's up with you and him? Elizabeth tells me you slept against him, then you two were holding hands. Anything we should know?"

Pixie rolled her eyes. "No, there's nothing you should know. We're friends, that's all, nothing more. Although he does make a remarkably good pillow."

Sarah did not look convinced. "Sure . . ."

"Well it's true," Pixie said, then changed the subject. The four chatted pleasantly for a good twenty minutes before Pixie heard the professor's voice in her mind.

_Pixie, could you come to my office to show Kurt around the school?_ At her affirmative he continued. _He will be staying with Peter, Bobby and John. If you could show him his room, then give him a tour that would be very nice._

_Of course, _Pixie thought, then when the mental presence of Professor Xavier had faded from her mind she turned to her friends. "Did you guys just get called by the professor?"

"Nope," said Elizabeth.

"Told you," Kerrie said. "It was just you he was talking to."

Pixie heaved herself off her nice comfortable bed. "I guess so." She walked across the room and on her way out the door she added, "I'll see you in a bit."

As she walked down the hallway toward the professor's office she remembered the itch of her wings wanting out. She expanded them with a sigh of contentment and fanned them out, beating them a few times to loosen the kinks. Thank god for open-backed shirts, she thought. Kinks loosened, she folded the extra appendages along her back, where they would take up less room.

That was the one thing she didn't like about the trip, she thought, it was hard to let her wings out. She definitely couldn't do it at the art galleries and museums they went to during the day, and was wary of letting them out in the hotel room, as the cleaning staff had a key.

But then again she hid them for longer during the summer. She went home to stay with her parents then, and although they didn't know she was a mutant, she thought they would guess if the saw her fairylike wings.

She quickly turned her mind to another topic, before the guilt of lying to her parents got to her. Unfortunately the first subject her mind landed on was that of Kurt, and her conversation with Sarah. Did she like him as more than a friend? Sure, he was nice and funny, and attractive in his own way, but– she stopped herself. But what? What was wrong about liking him? Her mind couldn't seem to come up with an answer for that one, except that he no doubt saw her as just a friend, and that was just lame.

She arrived at the door to the professor's office without really realizing how she got there. She pushed all thoughts of guilt about parents and liking or not liking certain guys out of her mind, and raised her hand to knock.

Before her knuckles touched the wood the professor's voice called out from inside the room. "Come in."

She opened the heavy wooden door and stepped inside the professors tastefully decorated office. The professor was behind his desk and Kurt sat in one of the plush chairs opposite. Both turned toward her at her arrival. "Hey professor! Kurt, you ready to go?"

"_Ja_." He stood and picked up his bags before walking over to Pixie. "Your wings are out. I have never seen them out unless you are flying." He paused for a moment to consider her. "They suit you."

This last comment flustered Pixie and a blush rose on her cheeks. "Oh, um . . . thanks." However, she quickly managed to regain her footing. "And, yeah, I didn't really feel comfortable having them out in Germany. It's just not the same. I have the tendency to leave them out here though, just because I can I suppose. So, you ready for the grand tour?"

"_Ja_." He turned back to the professor. "_Danke_ again."

The professor waved it off. "It is not a problem. Now, go on your tour and have fun."

"C'mon," Pixie said cheerfully and dragged him out of the room. Once she was in the hallway, she turned right toward the boys dorms instead of the knee-jerk left toward her own. "Alright, so here's the basic layout of the school: there are four floors in all. The basement's got all the cool stuff the parents don't see, first floor is classrooms, kitchen, rec room, etc. The second is dorms and the teacher's offices. Incidentally the offices are smack in-between the girls and boys dorms. The third floor is mostly teachers' rooms, and that's it.

"Now we're into the boy's dorms. The rules are really lax about members of the opposite sex, so don't worry about coming to visit."

She paused before an open door. "This is your room; you'll be sharing with Peter, Bobby and John, and they're pretty cool. Come on in." She entered the room to see Peter drawing in a sketchbook at his desk. The room itself was rather large, as were all the dorm rooms, but they usually held two to four people so they didn't always seem that big. There were four beds, two to one wall, two to the opposite wall, with night tables in between. Dressers and desks were put wherever they fit, and a bathroom led off from one wall.

The wall space above and around the three occupied beds was covered in posters, pages torn out of sketchbooks, pictures out of magazines, and other random stuff.

"Hey Peter," she called as she stepped further into the room, Kurt following behind her. "Kurt's going to be rooming with you, okay?"

"Yes, of course. Come on in Kurt. Just . . . wait one second." He closed his sketchbook (before Pixie had gotten a chance to peek at what he'd been drawing) and stood up, walking over to the extra bed. The reason for the pause in his speech was evident, as the bed was full of stuff. He quickly cleared it off and gestured toward it. "You can put your stuff there."

Kurt did, and Pixie stepped forward. "Well, I'm supposed to be giving you the grand tour, and I don't think showing you to your room and abandoning you counts, so should we keep going?"

"Sure." They turned and walked toward the door. When they reached the threshold Kurt stopped. "See you later Peter."

"Yeah, see ya," Pixie called.

Peter merely lifted his hand in farewell and smiled.

Once they were out in the corridor Pixie turned for the stairs. "I'll show you where my room is on the way back." After Kurt's nod they walked in silence for a few moments before Pixie remembered she had something she wanted to ask. "Hey Kurt, if you don't mind me asking, why did you decide to come with us? When we, um, eavesdropped on yours and Ms. Monroe's conversation it seemed like you were going to turn her down. Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Well," he said as they started down the stairs, "after I talked with Ms. Monroe I went home and talked it over with my mother.

"Sometimes in the past people have mistaken me for . . . a devil or a demon, and they try to hunt me. When I was younger I mostly stayed within whichever clearing the circus was camping at, so 'demon hunts' didn't happen very often. Now I go further from camp, and more people accidentally see me when I'm not performing. It's happened twice in the past two months and my mother is worried that one day they will catch me and I won't be able to get away. She thinks I will be safer here, and I can get a good education.

"I didn't want to leave my family, my home, but my mother convinced me, so here I am."

Pixie smiled up at him. "Well, I'm glad she did! Now, this is the foyer, and the front door's through there. Over here is the kitchen. I'm going to get a drink, do you want one?"

"Yes, please," he said as he followed her through the swinging door and into the spacious kitchen.

She took two glasses down from a cupboard and went to inspect the contents of the fridge. After a moment she said, "Juice alright with you?"

"Juice is fine," Kurt said, hopping onto one of the bar stools that stood around the island.

When Pixie turned around with the juice pitcher in hand it was to see Kurt with a cheeky grin on his face as he held his glass out for her to fill. She giggled and poured him some juice before getting some for herself and sitting down across from him.

"_Danke_."

"No problem," Pixie said. "We have pop, but for some stupid reason it's stored up there in the cupboard. So if you want to have any you have to drink it warm, or stick it in the fridge and hope nobody snatches it, which they will." She sighed. "It's dumb."

She stood up, glass still in her hand. "Anyway, we can take these with us, so let's keep going, shall we?"

"Sure," he said, getting up and following her out into a hallway.

She came to a halt in front of an open door. "This," she said, "is the rec room. It's got a TV and all the movies, a music system, pool table, video games, the works. If you haven't already guessed, this is where we spend most of our evenings." She went in and pointed out the various systems. A few guys were playing pool, so she introduced them to Kurt.

Pixie finished off the rest of the first floor rather quickly after that. They poked their heads into various classrooms, but didn't spend much time in them. Pixie said she wished to avoid them as best she could until school actually started. Honestly, she might catch something!

They made their way back up the stairs and Pixie tested Kurt to make sure he could remember where his room was. Thankfully he could, and she led the way over to the girl's wing.

"As I said before, the rules are really lax about guys in girls' rooms and girls in guys' rooms. Really, the only rule is to leave the door open. I mean, what with us being teenagers and all, they know that the two sexes aren't going to leave each other completely alone, but they expect that we won't go too far. And with two telepaths in residence, it's sorta hard to break the rules and get away with it.

"I hadn't thought about that, but I suppose it is." He lowered his head in mock-sadness for a moment. "All of my plots, ruined."

Pixie smiled, then gestured toward the closed door they were facing. "This is me. Want to come in and say hi to the others?"

"Sure."

"Alright then, come on in." She opened the door and stepped inside. "Hey, honey, I'm home!"


	7. Chapter 7 Calm Before the Storm

A/N: This story has been abandoned, but I had a couple extra chapters hanging around my computer that I thought I'd stick up just to have it all there. So yeah, these are it.

What If?

Chapter 7: Calm Before the Storm

Sarah raised a fire-coated hand, but otherwise didn't move from her prone position on her bed at Pixie and Kurt's arrival. A muffled "Hey," came from the closet where Kerrie was busy putting away her empty suitcase, unpacking finished. 

"Hey Kerrie," Kurt said. "Have you finished unpacking already Sarah?"

Sarah sent bluebell-coloured flames shooting up from her hand toward the ceiling, toward but not touching. She contemplated the jet of flames for a second before turning her head to grin at Kurt. "Haven't even started yet."

"Me neither," Pixie agreed. She sat down on her bed and motioned that Kurt could do the same. He smiled and crouched down beside her, leaving his tail free.

"Do you know where Elizabeth's gone?" Pixie directed this question at Kerrie, who had just emerged from the closet. 

Kerrie flopped down on her own bed. "She went to do laundry I think. Are you two done the tour of the school?"

"Nope, just taking a break. We've done the first floor and most of the second, but not the third or the grounds." Pixie leaned back on her elbows and looked over at Kurt. He was looking around the room with the almost universal expression of curiosity that comes on people's faces when they enter a room for the first time.

Pixie looked around too. The room she shared with her three closest friends was very mismatched, as were most of the dorm rooms at Mutant High. The bedspread she was sitting on could be either lime green or fade from light blue to dark blue. At the moment she had the lime green side up, and it matched the lime green pear-shaped throw pillow she had at the head of her bed.

As for the rest of the room, Kerrie's side was a veritable jungle. She had plants climbing the trellis' she'd nailed to the wall, or hanging down from baskets hooked to the ceiling. All the plants that did flower were, and the differently shaded blooms added a riot of colour.

She had actually gone so far as to climb her vines up her bedposts and across the netting she had in lieu of a canopy. So instead of a cloth canopy she had a living green one.

Every inch of her wall space that didn't have things growing on it had posters; ones she'd bought, ones she'd painted, even the little ones you get in magazines. The rest of the girls had a few, but not to the extent that Kerrie did.

Compared to Kerrie's space, the rest of the room was rather tame. Sarah and Elizabeth both had posters on their sections of wall, as did Pixie, but only two or three. As they had been gone for two weeks the room was clean, but that would soon change.

Pixie set her empty glass down on the night table where she would remember to take it back to the kitchen. Kurt saw this and offered to 'port them down, if that was allowed. "Of course it is. We go a little powers-crazy here, feel free to teleport where you want."

Once he'd reappeared in a cloud of blue smoke glass-less they continued. The third floor went pretty quickly; Pixie pointed out which room belonged to which teacher and showed him the library, which took up the entire end of the hallway.

It was a wonderful room, with row upon row of books just waiting to be read. Banks of state-of-the-art computers hummed quietly to themselves. A few students sat chatting at one of the big round tables, but the squishy sofas were unoccupied.

Understandably, Pixie wanted to stay there. To find a good book and curl up in one of the squishy sofas and read the hours away, but she had a job to do. She said as much to Kurt, who laughed. 

Rather than going down two flights of stairs to get outside, Pixie opted to simply open one of the library's tall old-fashioned windows. Standing in front of it with her wings out but tucked along her back, she pointed. "See that big old oak tree there? I'll meet you there." Kurt nodded and disappeared in a flash of blue smoke. She climbed onto the windowsill and jumped, not fanning out her glorious wings until she was sure she'd cleared the window. She fell a few feet, but with a few strong beats she was rising. She arrowed toward Kurt, making her landing a little more showy than she had to, but what was the harm?

The pair strolled along the grass, basking in the sunlight. As they walked, Pixie pointed out various things; the pool, the basketball court, the stables. It was obvious to all that it took a lot of effort for Pixie to leave the stables. It was tied with the library as her favourite place.

Unbeknownst to the two, three pairs of eyes watched their progress from one of the second-floor windows. "She likes him," stated Elizabeth. Echion, who was incidentally a fourth pair of eyes trained on the two nodded his head in agreement from his place around Elizabeth's neck.

There was an evil glint in Sarah's eye. "Think we should help them along?" Shutting one eye she mimed squishing them together with her fingers. 

The three shared an identical wicked smirk. If anyone had come upon them at this moment, one would think they had superhuman speed, so fast would be their retreat. The evil aura surrounding them was practically visible.

XXXXXXX 

Pixie was snuggled deep into her blankets, enjoying a dream about Johnny Depp and whipped cream when she was rudely awakened by the snap of imploding air followed a second later by someone whipping off her covers.

Freezing, she bolted upright and glared at the blue smudge she assumed was Kurt. Technically, she was allowed to sleep in her contact lenses, but preferred not to, as they tended to make her eyes red. She groped blindly on her bedside table and found her glasses. Slipping them on, she looked around. It was Kurt, and he was currently trying to wrestle Sarah's blankets away from her. The fight was not going well.

"Kurt, what are you doing?" Taking a better stock of her surroundings Pixie exclaimed "It's barely even light out!" With a groan she flopped back down and curled into a little ball, trying to burrow under her pillows.

Finally Kurt just teleported Sarah's blankets away from her, and in doing so ended up near Pixie's bed. "What am I doing? It's the first day of school, aren't you excited?" A chorus of groans and negative expletives answered his question.

Sarah let out a surprised shriek. "It's six o'clock in the freaking morning! Kurt, give me back my blankets or I will burn you to cinders!" She lit up her hands to further persuade him glaring daggers at the blue-skinned mutant. 

Elizabeth sighed from her bed. She still had her covers. "Kurt, no one's going to be up for at least half an hour, the sane one's an hour. Just, go back to bed or something."

He threw up his hands in exasperation. "Ach, fine." Gingerly he gave Sarah her blankets back, who almost forgot to put out her hands before she grabbed them possessively and wrapped herself up like a mummy.

Kurt approached Pixie with the same wary expression he'd approached Sarah with but she just accepted her blankets back with a sleepy "thanks" and pulled them up to her chin.

With one last look at the four cynical, sleep-deprived girls and a shake of his head, Kurt left, shutting the door softly behind him.

XXXXXXX

Three hours later Pixie was grinning to herself; he just looked so . . . cute. Ripping a piece of paper from her binder she scribbled a hasty note, which read "calm down will you? You're, like, vibrating. :)". The piece of paper was then crumpled up and tossed in the direction of the of the desk to her right. 

It rolled to a stop right beside a blue-skinned hand. Kurt risked a furtive glance around the classroom before straightening out the paper and quickly reading the two lines on it. He grinned over at Pixie before writing a quick reply. He re-crumpled the paper and made another quick scan for the teacher before lobbing it back. 

She had to smile at his actions. She read his reply of "can't help it" and her smile grew. Shifting her wings so they fit behind her chair better she leaned over toward Kurt. "You know, Ms. Monroe isn't even here yet, you don't have to check for her."

"Ja, I suppose. I'm just excited, I've never gone to a real school before." He glanced at the clock. "By the way, where is Fraulein Monroe? It does not seem like she would be late."

Sarah slid into the seat in front of Pixie. "She's not late, you guys are early. The bell doesn't ring for five minutes."

If you looked closely, you could see that Kurt's cheeks darkened a fraction with a blush. A sheepish grin on his face, he said, "As I was saying to Pixie, I guess I'm just excited."

Pixie smiled and shrugged. "It's the first day of school, you're allowed to be excited. I've always liked the first day myself, no homework usually. But, I'll bet you by the end of the week you'll have changed your tune."

"We'll see."

Taking a look around the slowly filling room, Pixie asked, "Hey Sarah, where's Kerrie and Elizabeth? They'd better get here soon, they've only got a few minutes."

Sarah shrugged. "Elizabeth's in our room doing girly things, and Kerrie wandered off. I'm not sure where she is."

At that moment Ms. Monroe walked in, a stack of papers in her arms. After setting them down on her desk she began watering her the many plants hanging around the room. Of course, being a mutant she didn't do it the conventional way. Instead, she conjured up a small rain cloud and moved it from plant to plant.

Just as the bell rang Kerrie and Elizabeth slid into their seats. Ms. Monroe turned from soaking her last plant to face the class. "Welcome to English."

XXXXXXX

The week passed quickly and with only one explosion, a record in the history of Mutant High. Friday night saw the girls and Kurt starting a movie in the rec room.

Kurt flopped down on the couch beside Pixie. "So much homework," he moaned. "What's wrong with the teachers?"

Pixie laughed. "Told you you'd change your mind about school. Anyways, it's not so bad, you should see how much we get the month before exams. Don't make plans to do anything then, you won't have time with all the homework you get."

He covered his ears. "I don't want to hear it!" After a few seconds he lowered his hands to stare at the television screen. "What's this?" He arranged himself more comfortably on the couch.

"Pirates of the Caribbean," Elizabeth answered from Pixie's other side. Plopping a large bowl in Pixie's lap she asked, "Popcorn?"

"Um, sure," Pixie said, echoed by Kurt as they settled in to watch the movie. As it progressed, Pixie found it harder and harder to keep her eyes open. She thought this was a little strange, as usually she was a total night owl, able to stay up to all hours of the night without feeling a thing. Oh well, she thought, maybe it's just my body trying to catch up on the sleep I missed during the week.

That decided, she moved the empty popcorn bowl onto the coffee table and snuggled closer to Kurt. He'd proved on the plane to be an excellent pillow, and she was going to take full advantage of that. Besides, she'd seen "Pirates" enough times to quote it so it didn't matter if she missed some. 

She lay her head on his shoulder, and when he looked down at her questioningly her only explanation was "tired." He looked uncomfortable for a moment, then relaxed and draped an arm around her. She only snuggled closer.

Opening her eyes to watch a particularly funny part Pixie caught Kerrie's eye. The other girl raised her eyebrows in a you're-awfully-snuggly-with-him sort of gesture. Pixie shrugged and answered, "He's comfortable."

Kerrie responded with another raised eyebrow, this time obviously meaning 'okay . . ."

They settled back in, blissfully ignorant of the events which were about to unfold.


	8. Chapter 8 The Storm Hits

A/N: Another of my extra chapters. I was actually really fond of the way this one went.

What If?

Chapter 8: The Storm Hits

The helicopter was filled with monsters. Young men, all of them, who led normal lives and were normal people. They were everyday respectable citizens, but inside, sometimes unknown to even them, they were monsters. They looked the part too, dressed in bulky clothing with too many pockets, war paint smeared across their faces. Each wore a pair of goggles that allowed them to see in the dark like a vampire, the world painted in alien green.

Leading the monsters was an old man. He was dressed in normal clothes and looked like a normal person, but he was the most hideous monster on the aircraft. Physically, he was rather benign-looking. His clothing couldn't disguise the beginnings of a beer-belly and the earpieces of his rimless glasses nestled in his salt-and-pepper hair. Inside though, his soul had twisted and shrivelled. He had committed more atrocities in his lifetime than the upstanding young gentlemen sharing the helicopter could ever dream of.

The chopper set down in the middle of a wide lawn when they reached the target. A confident gesture, assuring the soldiers that the stealth they were undertaking to enter the old mansion was just a precaution.

The gesture worked for at least one soldier. He skulked along a richly decorated corridor, fairly bursting with the need to follow his leader's orders. He fully believed that he was doing The Right Thing. As instructed, he cleared every room leading off the hall, leading with his gun. It was loaded with tranquillizer darts, much to his distaste. He would have felt safer with real bullets. So far, the rooms were empty, and the soldier wasn't sure what he felt about that. On one hand, he despised the freaks and wanted to down as many of them as he could, but on the other they frightened him. Who knew what they were capable of?

His hallway cleared, he jogged up the stairs, taking care to keep his footsteps muffled. At the top, he eased open the first door to find four of the freaks sound asleep. He quickly darted all four of them but before he moved on to the next room he took a look around. It looked eerily similar to his little sister's bedroom, right down to the posters on the wall. The thought shook him before he harshly reprimanded himself. This is what made them such freaks, that they could just blend in with society and skulk along in the shadows without being detected. This is why the soldiers had needed to come in at night, when they would be asleep and off-guard.

Still a little disturbed, he moved on to the next room. Again, when he opened the door it was to find four sleeping freaks. As he darted the first one, a faint beam of light seeping in from the hallway highlighted a rainbow of ink tattooed across her back. Wings, he thought, what a waste of ink. 

He trained his gun on the next freak, but before he could pull the trigger a sound like the snap of a whip coming from the middle of the room startled him. As trained, he whipped his gun around in the direction of the noise but could see nothing. The darkness didn't seem to matter though, for the 'nothing' seemed to be able to see him. Sooner than he could fire off a shot it was on him, and before it sent him into the oblivion of unconsciousness one thought streaked through his mind. Oh shit, they've woken up . . .

XXXXXXX

Kurt was breathing hard as he watched the soldier crumple to the ground. He had heard them coming and knocked two unconscious as they crept down the hall by the boy's dorm before teleporting to wake the girls. He'd nearly had a heart attack when he saw the soldier standing in their room, gun drawn. Now that he was down for the count, Kurt hastened to wake the girls.

Pixie was the closest so he rushed to her side first, but as he bent down to gently shake her awake he saw the three small darts embedded in her neck. He quickly pulled them out and tossed them aside, then worriedly tried to wake her, but to no avail. She was still breathing, which was good, but she seemed to be unconscious.

He had just gotten up to wake the other three girls when Siryn's scream split the still night air. Hissing in pain, Kurt covered his sensitive ears, which did little to block out the sound. The other three mutants were instantly awake, and they clapped their hands over their ears as well. As the scream went on, the mirror on the vanity and hanging on the closet door shattered, raining glass shards onto the floor. The sound finally stopped, cut off in mid scream. This could only mean that one of the soldiers had shot her.

Siryn had, however, succeeded in waking the rest of the students, and Kurt could hear yelling and running feet from down the hall, presumably rushing toward one of the secret passageways that every student had been shown upon their arrival. Kurt himself had their location revealed to him only a week earlier.

"Kurt? What's going on?" Sarah was half out of bed, shaking her head to clear it of the ringing aftermath of Siryn's scream. When she saw the fallen man by Pixie's bed she snapped awake, her hands flaming up with their eery blue blaze. The extra light provided by her mutation illuminated the camouflage paint on his face and the gun laying by his hand. "Who is that?"

"I don't know, a soldier. Come on, we have to go." He moved as if to hustle them out the door, but the girls balked at stepping over the downed fighter.

Elizabeth grabbed the blue-skinned mutant's arm. "Kurt," she said, voice calm but dilated pupils showing fear, "What is going on?" She finally registered that Pixie wasn't moving. "And what's wrong with Pix? Why isn't she up?"

Kurt stopped trying to shoo them out and took a deep breath. It was obvious that the girls weren't going to move until they had some idea what was going on, but time was of the essence. "I'm not sure what's going on. All I know is that there are men with guns in the school. There were two by my room, and the one in yours. I knocked him out, but he'd done something to Pixie, shot her with some dart things, and now she won't wake up. One of the soldiers must have woken up Siryn, and now she's woken up everyone else. Everybody is running for the tunnels and I suggest we join them."

"Good idea," Kerrie said. She moved to step over the soldier's prone form but paused, a new thought occurring to her. "What about Pix?"

"I've got her, now get moving." His words were underscored by the sound of gunfire from the boy's dorms, followed by a crash. The sound was so loud the girls knew it had to have been something going through a wall. Living at Mutant High taught you these things. The sound galvanized the girls into motion, and Kurt gently scooped up the unconscious girl before following them into the hall. 

In the halls pandemonium reigned. Kids were running and screaming, though the younger ones seemed to calm down a fraction when they saw the older students. Of the five of them, Sarah led the way, as hers was the most offensive power in the group. Her hands were still ablaze, the flames licking her forearm. She was careful to keep them away from her clothing, as they could easily be set alight.

The group went with the flow of students toward the nearest secret passage, hurrying as much as they could with Kurt burdened by Pixie's dead weight. They still managed to reach it quickly, only to find a bunch of younger students grouped around the wall, pushing futilely. Kerrie managed to wade through them and shoved the wall open, waiting as the kids rushed through. Their little group was the last in, checking for other students before they pulled the section of wall down to its original position.

Kurt had only seen the tunnels once before, and they were just as cold and damp as he remembered. The lighting was dim at best, but his sensitive golden eyes had no trouble making things out. 

The other students, however, were having a bit more trouble. They stumbled occasionally and one young boy fell flat, crying out in pain. He had started to sob in earnest when Kerrie scooped him up. She quickly shushed him, though not unkindly, and they continued on, the three girls and Kurt working to keep everyone together and headed in the right direction.

The group of fleeing students came to a point where three tunnels merged into one. As the kids flowed into the large tunnel Kurt stopped. He heard something from one of the other passageways, coming toward the group. It sounded like footsteps, a lot of them. However, he didn't have long to ponder the thought because a moment later the sounds revealed themselves to be Peter leading his own band of scared children. 

The two groups stopped for a moment, the kids urgently searching out friends they thought left behind. Peter stepped up to Kurt and the girls, a sleeping boy in his arms. "Are you guys alright?"

"Yeah," Kerrie nodded, shifting the still-sniffling boy on her hip. "How 'bout you? We heard a crash and some gunfire coming from the boys dorms."

"I am fine. The gunfire was at me, but I was armoured. The crash was from two of the soldiers going through a wall. We should keep moving." He turned to the group of children and raised his voice. "Let's go, come on."

As the group started down the tunnel Elizabeth and Sarah moved to the head of the group to lead the younger students while Kerrie and Kurt stayed at the back with Peter. Kerrie motioned toward the boy in Peter's arms. "Is he okay, did one of the soldiers shoot him?"

Peter shrugged his massive shoulders. "I don't know, Logan passed him to me and he was already out. What about Pixie, is that what happened to her?"

Kurt shifted her in his arms as they hurried down the tunnel. "Yes, one of the soldiers shot her with darts." A hint of worry seeped into his voice as he looked down at her peaceful face. "She won't wake up."

The students hurried down the dank tunnel, bare feet hitting the stone floor the loudest sound. The younger children had calmed down at the presence of the five older students who seemed to know what they were doing and gratefully followed the two in the lead. Sarah still had her hands lit up, and was using them to illuminate the tunnel as they jogged along.

A few minutes later it became a bit easier to see, and soon they came upon a large metal grille. Peter moved to the front of the group and merely shoved with his shoulder to force the grille open. He stepped through into the dense ferns and the others followed, Kerrie and Kurt carrying Pixie coming last. 

Once the group had moved out of the ferns into the denser foliage they stopped, unsure of what to do. They knew they had to get away from the school, but other than that they were lost. There were five awake teenagers to take care of about fifteen or twenty younger students, ages ranging from seven to about twelve. They were all in their pajamas, which were doing little to ward off the chill wind. It may have only been the beginning of September, but the night was still unpleasantly cold.

After a brief discussion among the teenagers they decided to move deeper into the forest and then try and camp out for the rest of the night. Some of the younger students were almost asleep on their feet as it was. Sarah was voted to walk in the front as the moon shed little light to see by. She also helped by creating several small fireballs that she directed to hover above the ground at strategic intervals.

They had hiked for about an hour before it was decided that they had gone far enough. Kurt was very thankful, as his arms were starting to hurt from carrying Pixie. He set her down in the little clearing they had found and walked a few paces to where the other older students had gathered.

A discussion was running about what to do. Through a yawn Sarah declared, "We can't all sleep; some of us should stay awake in case the soldiers come out here." A round of nods greeted this statement. "The only issue is who's going to stay up and who gets to sleep?"

Peter immediately volunteered, as did Kerrie and Kurt. Peter shook his head and clapped a hand on Kerrie's shoulder. "You should sleep, Kurt and I can take care of it. Besides, our mutations are better suited for guarding than yours; I can armour myself and Kurt can see in the dark as well as teleport."

Reluctantly, Kerrie agreed, and the girls walked off to find a spot to bed down. Kurt and Peter took up positions on either side of the little clearing and settled themselves in for the remainder of what had already been a long night. 

XXXXXXX

Pixie was exhausted. All she wanted was to sleep for about the next million years, but an insistent pressure on the small of her back and a chill wind were slowly dragging her from her state of blissful unconsciousness. With a low groan she opened her eyes, rubbing a sleep-heavy hand over the lids.

She reached behind her, intending to smooth the knot of blankets she was laying on that was irritating her so, only to come up holding – a rock? Why was there a rock in her bed? A good-sized one too, not just a piece of pea-gravel that made its way in the house inside someone's shoe. 

Her rock-musing was cut short by the arrival of Kurt, who came out of nowhere, landing in a heap beside her. His eyes were wide as he asked if she was okay, and his hand stroked down one arm as if to reassure her, which was strange. Why did she need to be reassured?

"Yeah, I'm okay," she mumbled. She held up the rock that had been digging into her back. "Why is there a rock in my bed?"

He laughed then, and hugged her around the shoulders. As he did though, his arm brushed against the side of her neck and she winced from the sudden pain. Once he let go she reached a hand to explore the sore spot, a hushed "ow" coming from her lips.

As the sleep-fog started to clear from her head, she realised that Kurt was acting strangely and that there was absolutely no plausible reason for there to be a rock in her bed. She squinted, trying to see Kurt better, but the darkness and her lack of glasses made that impossible. 

She stretched out a hand toward her bedside table where her glasses lay, hoping to get at least some manner of sight back but her hand encountered pine needles and dirt instead of the smooth wood she expected. She sat up on her elbows, peering around uselessly. Turning to the dark blur that was Kurt, she asked "What's going on, why are we out in the woods?" A hint of fear seeped into her words.

Kurt sighed and shifted so that he was sitting beside Pixie, with his back braced against what she assumed was a tree. As he recited what had happened she grew more and more frightened. Soldiers were attacking Mutant High? 

She went to sit up, fully intending to march back to the school and wreak havoc but as she did a wave of dizziness washed over her. She flung her arms out, trying to regain some balance (and accidentally smacking Kurt in the leg as she did so). It appeared that whatever she had been shot with still hadn't totally worn off yet. 

As the world spun beneath her a warm hand landed on her shoulder, gently propelling her back into a prone position. "Easy there," came Kurt's soft voice. As she lay back down her eyes started to get heavy again, despite her best efforts. Damn it, she didn't want to sleep again! There were more important things than rest right now! Against her will, she felt her body relaxing, her eyes closing.

The last thing she heard was a murmured "goodnight" and the quick press of lips against her forehead before she drifted back to dreamland. 


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: The last of my extra bits. This one was never finished, so it's quite short.

What If?

Chapter 9

Pix rolled over on the cold ground, rubbing her eyes groggily. She felt strange, like there was something important going on, but she couldn't remember what it was. She sat up, brow furrowed as she tried to think. She reached for her glasses, but her hand encountered only pine needles and dirt.

The action brought back a rush of memory. She did that last night, before Kurt told her what happened. The school had been attacked! She tried to remember what happened next, but it was all a bit fuzzy. She had gotten dizzy and laid back down . . . She must have fallen back asleep. Dammit.

She could hear voices. She squinted in the pre-dawn light, but could only make out some blurry shapes to her right. She listened for a second, and recognised the sound of her roommates, as well as Kurt and Peter.

She stood up on cold bare feet and padded over to them. They got in better focus as she got closer, but she still couldn't make out the details. Stupid blind eyes!

"We'll be sitting ducks if we stay here!" That voice was Sarah-tinged, Pix thought, and went over to lean against her friend. The debate paused for a second and Sarah, a smirk visible only because of proximity, said, "You finally up, Sleeping Beauty?"

Pix nudged her with a smile. "Shut up, I was tranq'ed you idiot. I have good reason to be woozy." She looked around at the blurry faces and decided it wouldn't hurt to ask. "No one happened to grab my glasses or contacts on the way out, did they?"

She saw a couple of head-shakes and heard Elizabeth's "Nope."

"Damn," she said. "I could really use them." She turned toward the rest of the clearing. "Is everyone else still asleep?" She remembered Kurt saying last night that there were others who had escaped with them.

"_Ja_," said Kurt from her right. "The little ones are all still asleep." Pix stumbled a bit and he caught her arm, his voice worried as he asked, "Are you alright? Are you still feeling sick? Do you want to lay down?"

Pix grinned and transferred her weight from Sarah to Kurt. He was really comfortable to lean on. "I'm fine, just tripped over . . ." She looked down, squinting. " . . . something. Still a bit groggy, but I'm always like that in the morning." She smiled as he wrapped a companionable arm around her waist. "What's going on, anyway?"

"We're trying to figure out what to do." Kerrie answered.

"I think we should keep moving." That was Sarah.

"To where?" Elizabeth asked.

"Somewhere. What if they find us?"

"What if we get lost?" Pixie interjected.

"Couldn't you just fly up and see where we are?" Sarah's voice was a bit sarcastic.

Pix gestured toward her eyes. "Blind, remember?"

Sarah swore under her breath. "I still say we should move. We're probably still too close to the school; they could find us."

"She does make a good point," Peter said, speaking up for the first time since Pix had gotten up. Until now he had merely been a large, skin coloured blur across from her.

"She does," Kurt agreed. "How about this," he said, looking across Pix, who was leaning on him tiredly, to address Sarah. "I can go scout out toward the school to see if they're still there and if they're looking for us. If they are we'll move deeper into the woods."

Pix tightened her arm around him. She hadn't seen the soldiers, but from what Kurt had told her the night before they were really serious. She opened her mouth to protest, but he continued on before she could. The others had been giving him shocked looks as well.

"I can teleport, and I can move without being seen. Sarah is right, we're sitting ducks if we stay here and do nothing, if we just wait for them to find us. I'm the best one to scout."

Peter clapped a large hand on Kurt's shoulder. "He's right. We should have some idea of what's going on, and Kurt's the best person to do that."

"But," Pix found her voice. "They have guns."

"And I have experience dodging them." His grin was a little sad.

Pix sighed. He did, and that was the horrible thing. He would be the best person to scout. "Alright. So, what will we do here?"

Kerrie shrugged. "Just wait, I guess."

A/N: That's all she wrote folks!


End file.
